[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 59 (Thursday, April 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO GROVER CONNELL, JR.

 Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, today I want to wish a lifelong 
citizen of New Jersey the happiest of birthdays. Grover Connell, Jr., 
celebrates his 100th birthday today. That alone is an accomplishment 
that not many people are able to achieve and is worthy of recognition.
  Grover Connell, Jr., was born on April 12, 1918, to joyous parents, 
Mr. and Mrs. Grover Connell, Sr., who were the founders of a rice 
distribution and export business, Connell Rice & Sugar Co. After 
serving in the Navy as an officer on a Fletcher Class destroyer from 
1942 to 1946 during WWII, Grover succeeded his late father and moved 
the business to a modern building near their family residence in 
Westfield, NJ, in 1950. There, he expanded his business, and by the 
1970s, Connell Rice & Sugar Co. became one of largest exporters of 
domestically grown rice, serving over 100 countries around the world. 
With the growing success of the family-owned business, Grover extended 
his scope of operations and became involved with a vast variety of 
services and products, and the business was renamed the Connell 
Company.
  The Connell Company has provided thousands of jobs to New Jersey 
residents with its business of leasing, distributing, and selling 
construction equipment; brokering and selling canned food products; 
offering asset management services in the technology sector; and 
arranging financing of leased equipment and commercial property 
development. Today, under the leadership of Grover Connell, Jr., the 
Connell Company is one of the greatest known brokers of domestically 
grown rice. Thanks to love and support of his late wife, Patricia, his 
two daughters, Terry and Toni, and his three grandsons, Shane, Duane, 
and Sean, the Connell Company continues to grow while remaining a 
privately held, family-run company.
  I applaud and honor the exemplary life of Grover Connell, Jr., for 
his sacrifice and service to our Nation and nations around the world 
and for his ambition and humility throughout his life. New Jersey is 
better today for his relentless hard work and dedication. I am 
immensely proud to have him as a constituent, and I hope that his 100th 
year is the best one yet.

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