ABC honors individuals who, over the past 50 years, have significantly enhanced the association and influenced the course of the merit shop movement in the United States.
Pennsylvania contractor whose efforts to complete an open shop job in the summer of 1972, despite intense organized labor violence against his company, came to symbolize the determination of merit shop contractors to participate in the construction marketplace.
ABC executive vice president from 1983 to 1997 who was the driving force behind the standardization of open shop craft training, which led to the creation of the National Center for Construction Education and Research.
Two-term ABC National president in 1973-74, whose lifelong commitment to the merit shop movement and the betterment of his local community epitomized the open shop philosophy and continues to serve as an inspiration to all.
Venable, Baetjer & Howard labor attorney and long-time general counsel to ABC who formulated ABC''s legal defense philosophy during a period of unrelenting attacks against the association and its members.
BE&K founder and 1980 ABC National president who spearheaded the association''s effort to create open shop craft training programs and set the standard for high quality employee benefits programs in his company.
Baltimore general contractor, who, when blacklisted by the Baltimore Building & Construction Trades Council, invited six other construction executives to his home to form ABC and became its first president.
Renowned Wharton School of Business economist whose two massive research treatises, Open Shop Construction and Open Shop Construction Revisited, provided statistical evidence of the merit shop revolution.
ABC National President in 1976 and later U.S. Ambassador to France who coined the phrase "Get into Politics or Get out of Business" and, by word and example, began the initiative that turned ABC into a major political force.
Executive vice president of ABC from 1952 to 1976 who was responsible for crystallizing the merit shop philosophy into a highly effective and dynamic organization unequalled in the defense of free enterprise.