After 25½ years with the Farm Bureau group of companies, and nearly six months of not being sure of a retirement date, Actuarial Director Randy Nordquist has finally reached that day: Randy’s retirement date is officially March 31, 2020.

 

He and his “better third,” Teresa, plan to play a lot of ball golf and disc golf during the summer months, and to ski at Grand Targhee as much as possible during the winter months (in between lots of visits with the grandkids in Missoula and Salt Lake City, of course).

 

Randy wishes the very best for the companies and to all of his Farm Bureau friends.

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NOTES FROM RANDY'S COWORKERS

Randy has always strived to put the customer first. He has been an outspoken advocate of going the extra mile to make sure each is treated fairly and given the benefit of the doubt. He has always maintained that even one misclassification is too many.

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When I first started with the company, he was actively identifying buildings that had been assigned an inaccurate fire protection class. On several occasions, he voluntarily drove dozens of miles out of his way while on vacation to locate undocumented fire hydrants so that our customers could receive credit for them. These efforts ultimately led to classification corrections for over 20% of the buildings we insure. As a result, Randy’s been known around the company for his emphasis on fire protection class. But he’s also helped identify and correct issues with many other data elements, like our commute classes.

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Randy is passionate about his work and that has always been obvious to anyone who asked him about it. “Come look over my shoulder…” has been his mantra as he provides a detailed overview of the process he used to develop his actuarial conclusions. He is not afraid of a challenge and is always prepared to explain the rationale behind his recommendations.

He’s very diligent, frequently works extra hours and loves what he does.

He wants to give his best to the company, and that’s a great example for

all of us!

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He and Teresa donated beautiful gift baskets for almost every raffle or fund-raiser the company held. They also frequently gave gift baskets to friends and employees. Randy’s a very giving individual, though he won’t admit it. “It’s from Teresa,” he’ll say, “not me.” Or, “it’s just some sh*t that was laying around the house.” One employee relations club member replied, “That’s some pretty nice sh*t!” (You know who you are.) Or Randy would pretend to be opposed to the gift and say, “She’s giving away the kids’ inheritance.”

 

A year or two ago, they built some beautiful themed bookends that he gave to various friends. The ones he gave me are very classy and feature owls - which I took as a complement.

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Randy’s a pretty funny guy. He has several funny anecdotes he loves sharing, like the fact that he told Teresa he’d help out with the kids when they were old enough to catch a baseball with something other than their face. Or when something goes wrong, he’ll say “Well, things will get worse before they get a lot worse.” Sometimes he likes to point to a sign hanging on his wall: “There’s no use being pessimistic, it probably wouldn’t work anyway.”

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One thing he made sure everyone knows about him is that he hates ties. Whenever I wore one, he’d say, “You must be bucking for a promotion.” Well, Randy, I guess you were right. But at least it finally worked!

-Jay Call, Director of Actuary

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