Bob Foos
A transition occurred on July 1 in the Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance office in Webb City, when, after 37 years, Mark Elliston retired, and Theran Crouch took over as the agency sales manager.
The transition began three years ago as an answer to the prayers of both Elliston and Crouch.
“We both had been praying for the same thing,” says Mark.
With retirement approaching, the person Mark first picked to succeed him had “fizzled.”
“I was ready for something stable,” says Theran, “at the same time Mark was praying to have someone take over.”
Theran, a 2014 Webb City High School graduate, was married to his wife, Katy, and doing several things after injury halted his pitching at Crowder College. He sold life insurance and had done some cage-fighting.
Then, he was told his main job of filming baseball recruiting videos for a firm in Ozark was ending.
He remembers that drive home after being told. “I was desperate – with a baby on the way.”
Theran had turned to professional boxing after cage-fighting and was scheduled for an event. But his same-size opponent, at 154 pounds, backed out. So he was forced to fight a heavier opponent. That meant he didn’t have to watch what he ate to make weight.
He did something he wouldn’t have normally. He stopped at the Sub Shop for lunch.
Theran and Mark had always known each other through church. When they saw each other at the Sub Shop, Mark told Theran he might be interested in taking out an ad on his boxing trunks. “But I need a salesperson. Do you think you’d be interested?”
“Talk about timing,” Theran says. “That 154-pound guy literally changed my life.”
Theran went on to get his insurance license and has trained under Mark for these three years.
Mark had also needed a career change when he became an agent. He was a Missouri state representative, but his family farm was no longer sustainable.
He had known David Collard, the Farm Bureau district manager, since they went to school together at Waco.
Collard needed a salesperson in the satellite office he had started in Webb City.
After becoming an agent in 1989, Mark says he turned the office into the largest agency in the state – “out of little, old downtown Webb City.”
Meanwhile, he continued going to Jefferson City during the legislative session for 14 years (before term limits). He maintains he drew a line between his two roles. For example, he recalls the time he helped a constituent file a complaint against himself as an agent because he had denied her insurance claim for a horse that died of natural causes.
Mark’s main concern lately, though, has been about the agency’s future without him.
“I wanted to leave people that were ready to go when I walked out of here.”
In addition to Theran, he is also leaving the office in the hands of licensed agents Shannon Mahaffey and Megan Ogle.
