Association Business
2022 TLA Lifetime Achievement Award Presented to Patrick K. McMonigle Presentation by John Wilcox
Good evening, everyone! I’m thrilled to have the privilege of presenting this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. As Dick Westley stated last year, the Lifetime Achievement Award is TLA’s highest honor and gives special recognition to a member who has devoted so much of his or her time, energy and talent to the organization, not just once or twice but repeatedly over a long period of time. The Lifetime Achievement Award is TLA’s version
of the Hall of Fame. As with the Distinguished Service Awards, it is a TLA tradition for the presenter to give clues about the recipient before revealing his or her identity. I will follow that tradition, even though my presence on the stage is a pretty strong hint as to who the recipient is. Okay, where to start? How about the beginning. This year’s recipient is the youngest child of Olaf and Helen and was born and raised in a small town in Missouri which is known far and wide as the “Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World.” Who knew? After growing up and graduating from high school, this year’s recipient went to college in another small town in Missouri. This one is known as the “City of Roses.” The recipient was a Sigma Chi and his alma mater was also attended by such luminaries as Rush Limbaugh and Cedric The Entertainer. As an aside, Cedric graduated, Rush did not. After graduating with a degree in secondary education, the recipient wasn’t much interested in teaching and somehow resisted the allure of the corn cob pipe industry, moving to Houston, Texas to sell reinforced sheet plastic to the construction industry. After a year
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or so in the workplace, he returned to Missouri to attend law school, this time in the “City of Fountains” at the University of Missouri— Kansas City. During his time in law school, a local transportation law firm was desperate for an infielder for its Lawyer League softball team. Given this, our recipient was hired by the firm as a law clerk in 1976, and to date, he’s never left. This year’s recipient quickly established that he offered more to the firm than his ability to turn a double play. He has gone on to have a distinguished legal career and is widely considered one of the Midwest’s premier transportation attorneys and litigators. As far as the TLA is concerned, this year’s recipient has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award, the Ugly Jacket, and though he claims otherwise, he is most definitely a “Bullshipper.” He has written for the TTL and presented at numerous conferences. Behind the scenes, he has been a strong presence and a friend and mentor to many. He served this organization on the officer ladder and the Executive Committee. As TLA President, he put on the extremely successful 2012 Annual Conference in Naples, Florida and was instrumental in talking the ‘powers-that-be’ into holding the 2010 TLI in Kansas City, which culminated in an epic Saturday night event at Knuckleheads. For those who are unfamiliar, Knuckleheads is a local bar and honkytonk located in a part of town that at that time, folks from out of town wouldn’t go…at least not voluntarily. This year’s recipient is married to Jeanne and they are the proud parents of two adult sons, Mitch and Ryan. They have two grandchildren and two more on the way. Pat is now the third Lifetime Achievement Award winner from that local transportation firm now known as Dysart Taylor Cotter McMonigle & Brumitt. Congratulations to my law partner, mentor and dear friend, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Pat McMonigle!
Transportation Lawyers Association • Canadian Transport Lawyers Association • July 2022, Vol. 24, No. 1
