DELRAY BEACH, FL - In June, at the 2015 CCAI Annual Meeting in Delray Beach, FL, the Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI) honored members for service and dedication and announced its 2015–2016 officers and National Board members.  At the Annual Awards Luncheon, the CCAI presented Chapter User and Supplier of the Year awards and the highest accolade, the James F. and David J. Wright Lifetime Achievement Award.

This year, CCAI announced Robert New as the posthumous winner of its highest honor, the 2015 CCAI James and David Wright Lifetime Achievement Award. New was a member of the CCAI Wisconsin Chapter and worked at Broan Manufacturing. He was a longtime CCAI champion who served on the chapter board, organized chapter golf outings each year and committed his career to electrocoating processes and improvements for his company. He truly believed in CCAI’s mission and worked hard to promote the association. Wisconsin chapter member, Larry Melgary remembers New, “If you looked in the dictionary for the definition of gentleman, Bob’s picture would be there. Bob was always enthusiastically contributing to the boards he served on, both the National and Wisconsin boards. Bob was the perfect example of chemical coater user of the year, which he won several times for the tours and support he and his company, Broan, gave to educating others in electrostatic spray and e-coat applications. He was an outstanding ambassador for CCAI.”  The Wisconsin Chapter presented the award to his family at its annual golf outing.

CCAI also honored three of its Chapter User and Supplier of the Year recipients at the luncheon. Each year chapters recognize a User and Supplier member for their year-long service and dedication to their respective chapter.

The 2014-2015 Chapter Award winners are:  Central States Chapter – Michael Miller, Webco Manufacturing Inc., and Marty Sawyer, Trimac Industrial Systems; Las Vegas Chapter – AR Iron LLC and Sercy Spears, Coral Chemical Co.; Northern Illinois Chapter – Bruce Bryan, Mighty Hook; Southern California Chapter - Shivie Dhillon, Sundial Powder Coating, and Antonio Tapia, Coral Chemical Co.; Twin Cities Chapter – Bette Danielson, Nordic Ware, and Tom Poppitz, AkzoNobel Powder Coatings; West Michigan Chapter -  William F. Knape, Knape Industries Inc., and Woody Booher, Double D Equipment Co.; and Wisconsin Chapter – Kathy Farley, The Sherwin-Williams Co.

The following individuals are serving the second year of their term as National Board of Directors Officers for 2015-2016:

• President Kevin Coursin, KMI Systems – Northern Illinois Chapter;
• Vice President Ron Lum, Coral Chemical Co. – Southern California Chapter;
• Treasurer Bill Oney, American Finishing Resources – Wisconsin Chapter; and
• Recent Past President Sam Woehler, George Koch Sons LLC – unaffiliated. 

In addition to the officers, serving on the National Board of Directors for the 2015-2016 programming year will be:  Bruce Bryan, Mighty Hook – Northern Illinois Chapter; Shivie Dhillon, SunDial Powder Coatings – Southern California Chapter, Duane Fudge, Chemetall - Mid-Atlantic Chapter; Jim Gallagher, Harley Davidson - Wisconsin Chapter; Kevin Irving, AZZ Galvanizing – Iowa/Central Illinois Chapter; Loren Keene, Pneu-Mech Systems Manufacturing – Central States Chapter; Todd Luciano, Products Finishing – Greater Cincinnati Chapter; Jim Malloy, Kolene Corp. - Unaffiliated;  Tim Milner, JIT Powder Coating – Twin Cities Chapter;  David Scharphorn, ChemQuest Inc. - West Michigan Chapter;  Tony Sclafani, AR Iron Inc. – Las Vegas Chapter; and Mark Walsworth, Donaldson Co. – Twin Cities Chapter. Serving as Ex-officio Board members are Larry Melgary, Northern Coatings & Chemicals – Wisconsin Chapter, and Bob Warren, retired – West Michigan Chapter.