Pub. 59 2018-2019 Issue 4

6 TADA Key Director Bryan Case, Sr. received the 2019 Key Director Award from Richard Karr at the 103rd Annual TADA Conference. E ach year at this meeting we honor the member of the TADA Board of Directors who has contributed the most to the success of the organization. The award is the Walter B. Wainwright Key Director Award, named for the revered former leader of the Houston Automobile Deal- ers Association. This is the only TADA award that is kept a secret until the moment it is presented. That moment is now. This year’s winner is a first-generation dealer who learned the business from the ground up, truly a self-made man. He got his training on a Texas ranch, herding livestock and operating the equipment necessary to run the family business. When that equipment broke down it was his job to fix a variety of engines, tractors and farm implements to keep the ranch operating. Exhibiting an unusual natural skill, he was soon the shade tree mechanic for the neighborhood even though he wasn’t old enough to have a driver’s license. The rules for driving on a Texas ranch are a little more lenient than those on a Texas highway, so our honoree was driving all manner of vehicles before he was 12, just as many of you and your children have done. When our honoree reached his twenties he was blessed with two sons, and to feed his family he became a PDI Technician at a local franchised car dealership. Using the skills that he learned managing the fleet on the family ranch, he eventually moved into the dealership’s main shop as a Tech, then to Service Writer and finally Service Manager. He progressed to another town and a dealer group as Fixed Operations Director, and finally to a major dealer chain as General Manager. About this time his two sons moved from Porter and Utility Crewman to Body Shop Estimator and Service Writer. Both sons, like Dad, began in Fixed Operations, again from the ground up. The sons learned from the best, and some would say the toughest. Even they disclosed that our honoree has a spot on his head that glows red, and when that spot glows… run! Today our winner is an experienced pilot with all of his private pilot ratings which goes hand in hand with his ability to pay attention to the smallest details. He operates dealerships in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Tyler, and his sons have grown up to each become a General Manager in two of the company’s dealerships. His boys relate that if one thing could sum up their father and all of the attributes that make him successful in business and in life, it would be a plaque that hangs on his wall that says, “Deeds not Words.” He doesn’t have to tell you who he is, he shows you. Ladies and Gentlemen… your Key Director for 2019, Bryan Case, Sr.  The following is Richard Karr’ s presentation.