[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17458]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO THOMAS A. GRAU

 Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise today to commend Thomas A. 
Grau, CPCU, who will be installed as the 100th president of the 
Nation's largest insurance association--the Independent Insurance 
Agents & Brokers of America, IIABA--this October in Orlando. He was 
elected to IIABA's Executive Committee in September 1999, and was 
inaugurated as president-elect during the association's convention in 
Las Vegas last fall. Tom is an executive with the Cogswell Agency in 
Great Falls, MT.
  Tom has been active on the local, state, regional and national levels 
of the insurance industry throughout his career. In 1991, he began his 
6-year tenure as the Independent Insurance Agents of Montana 
representative to the IIABA National Board of Directors. In 1997, he 
was appointed chairman of IIABA's Finance Committee. Tom also served on 
IIABA's Audit and Direction, and Resource Coordination Committees.
  He also was active in the regional Far West Agents Conference, 
serving as its chairman in 1986. The conference is an annual meeting of 
industry and independent agent leaders from eight Western States.
  On the state level, Tom was president of the Independent Insurance 
Agents of Montana, IIAM, in 1988, 1989 as well as chairman of its 
Technical Affairs Committee for 5 years and a member of the Board of 
Directors of IIAM's for-profit subsidiary--Public Risk Insurance 
Management, PRIM. On the local level, he twice served as president of 
the Independent Insurance Agents of Great Falls.
  Tom has been an ardent proponent of insurance industry education 
throughout his career, serving as instructor for numerous professional 
accreditation classes on the local and State levels, and earning the 
Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter, CPCU, designation in 1982.
  Tom also is deeply involved in his community. He is an active member 
of Holy Spirit Catholic Church and serves on the finance committee of 
Holy Spirit Catholic School. He is actively engaged in the local 
chapter of Optimist International, in which he is a past president and 
has held several offices, as well as the Muscular Dystrophy Association 
and the Boy Scouts of America.
  I am proud of Tom's many accomplishments, and I know he will serve 
his fellow independent agents and brokers with visionary leadership to 
further their many worthy causes. I wish him and his wife, Cheryl, 
great success as president and first lady of the Independent Insurance 
Agents & Brokers of America.

                          ____________________