John Abe Teague and Bill Darden at the NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership meeting at which Teague announced his upcoming retirement. Photo by Scott Robertson.
After stints in insurance and banking, as well as two go-arounds on the staff of Congressman Phil Roe, John Abe Teague is ready to call it a career. “It has come to a point in my life where I am going to say, ‘Time out,’” Teague said at the Oct. 11 meeting of the NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership board. “I have got three grandchildren, three children, a wife of going on 44 years – thank goodness – and I need to put my focus on them and on a farm I have in Telford.”
Teague has most recently served as district director, a post he took when Bill Snodgrass retired in January 2016. “At that time, Phil didn’t need to have to spend months finding somebody to come back to work,” Teague remembered. “Phil had his mother living in his home. He had things going on in his life that were crises in a way, plus what was going on in Washington D.C.” So Teague, who had treasured Roe’s initial congressional campaign, stepped in.
“It’s been an honor for me to be the representative for Congressman Roe here in the district,” Teague said. “And to be his district director, I mean, there’s only 435 district directors around the country – as there are 435 United States Congressmen. So for me to have that opportunity has been huge.”
Teague will be replaced by Bill Darden beginning Nov. 1., Teague said. “We wanted to make sure that when I did make an announcement, we had someone to step into the role and also someone to step into another role. Bill Darden has been with us now for probably a total of six to six-and-a-half years.”
Darden will be replaced in his role as district representative by Daryl Brady, most recently the program director and vice president of Leadership Knoxville.
“I feel like the turtle on the fencepost,” Teague said. “I sure didn’t get here by myself. I can look around at a whole lot of people who have been very supportive of me and of Congressman Phil Roe. We really do have a wonderful district.
We’re proud of Tennessee and Northeast Tennessee – District 1 is the best district in the country. It has been an honor to do this, but right now, I am going to be doing what I can to be a granddaddy and a daddy and a husband and a farmer.”
