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Frank Tunno and Bill Stewart strike out on their own in 1957 and four and a half decades later have the fifth largest insurance agency in Portland
Neil Heilpern
for the MID-COUNTY MEMO
In 1957 when Frank Tunno and Bill Stewart left jobs at Allstate Insurance to work for another company, they didn’t realize they would soon open an agency of their own and see it grow to become the fifth largest in the Portland metropolitan area.
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| Frank Tunno, left, confers with sales producer Rich Sorne about coverage for a client. |
| Photo by Neil Heilpern |
“One day I thought that if I could do this with these people, why can’t I do it on my own,” he told the Mid-county Memo. It was time to strike out in a new direction, even though leaving a profit sharing plan was a difficult thing to do. A decisive factor was the realization that climbing higher on the corporate rung meant being more vulnerable in office politics.
Shortly after purchasing the Lyman King Insurance Agency, which mostly sold life insurance, the new partners remodeled the office in the old Gateway Shopping Center at 102nd Ave. and Halsey St. The Stewart & Tunno Insurance Agency was born.
Within a few years, Stewart and Tunno found business thriving so much they kept hiring more staff and moving to a series of new locations. They began constructing an office at 10340 NE Wielder St. in 1965, then building another at 725 NE 102nd Ave. in 1972, and in 1978 finally settling into their present headquarters at 345 NE 102nd. Ave. All offices being within a half-mile of each other in Gateway.
Now, with 22 employees, “We write all lines of insurance as a full service agency - health, accident, pension plans, dental and all types of business and personal insurance,” said Tunno, who has been the sole owner since New Years Eve of 1987 when Stewart retired.
“We probably represent all the leading companies, 20 in all,” he noted, including “niche specialty markets and insurance for people who have a hard time getting insurance.” A third of the business deals with personal insurance, the rest for commercial enterprises.
At 82, “going on 50” Tunno boasts that he can” still hit the golf ball as far as most flat bellies.” One of the many knick-knacks adorning his paneled office is a foot-high replica of a golf bag on a cart, with tiny clubs poking up like submarine periscopes to check out visitors.
On his desk sits a big brass bell, a present from a friend who said Tunno could ‘ring it whenever you make a big sale.’ On another counter is a small collection of brightly painted model cars and trucks.
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| Agency President Eleanor Proctor is in charge of the daily operations, but Frank Tunno, keeps active with the company he owns. |
| Photo by Neil Heilpern |
When it comes to success, he may be proud of his personal achievements, but he attributes the company’s growth to his employees who boosted annual sales from $28,500 in 1957 to a point where “We will finish this year at about $15 million. That’s approximately 7-8,000 policies.”
“The whole agency works as a team,” he said. “It can’t be attributed to one specific person or personality.”
“We aren’t the biggest agency in the area,” he noted. “There are a lot that are smaller than we are and only five or six that are bigger. A couple of them are with national firms. The advantage we have is that we represent a lot more companies than most smaller agencies do.”
He expresses a lot of pride in the fact that members of his firm are also dedicated to their community, getting involved in a wide assortment of activities.
Ron Manza, a past president of both the Oregon Professional Insurance Agents, or PIA, and the East Side Rotary Club, was also a president of the Gateway Boosters and occasionally donned the humorous costume of the local Keystone Kops contingent.
Tim King served a term as president of the Downtown Lions Club. Rick Strom got active in the newly formed East Portland Chamber of Commerce. Barry Hornstein is active in the Gresham Chamber.
Tunno occasionally gets the white jacket out of the closet to participate with Portland’s Royal Rosarians. He is a past Prime Minister of the organization and was Grand Floral Parade chairman for a few years. “I solicited floats and saw that they got out on the street,” He recalled. “It was a lot of work, but the fun part was meeting various people, knowing you had something to do with it and - of course - escorting the princesses during Rose Festival week.”
The insurance brokers have adopted David Douglas and Reynolds High Schools, helping youngsters get hands on experience in the financial world through the Academy of Finance Partnership program.
“We give them information on insurance careers and conduct classes about the aspects of insurance, how it relates to them throughout their entire lives, and we help the schools find internships throughout the financial district for their students,” he said.
Realizing that insurance can be complicated, Tunno tells his customers, “Part of our job is to make you feel comfortable about your decisions and to offer a full range of options.”
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