Despite seed company mergers and major industry changes, the plant has been part of the Phillips area for 60 years because of the strong community support and the high-quality seed grown in the areas.

Some of the pagers are actually military standard as far as toughness goes, made by a company in Switzerland.

Since I was commissioner, I asked [the company] to produce the data underlying the rates. The thing that was really different was hail and wind. The risk of natural disaster was much greater. That caused maybe 90% of the difference in the rates, between Northern Virginia and Austin.

With (the company) being out of the loop, so to speak, that does bode well for everybody. I imagine there was a collective sigh of relief in Raleigh. I'm sure they wanted that.

The sole purpose of the company was getting me recorded. It was extraordinarily nice of them.

I told the company that I really needed to acquaint myself with the wines of Europe. Alex was old enough to take notice of things, and he showed a real interest in the wine business, even at that time.