(Great Lakes)

At the November 1993 Full Board Meeting, the Great Lakes Area Committee voted to establish the Great Lakes Area Award, thus becoming the seventh area to join the competition.

On June 20, 1995, the Great Lakes Area announced the name of the Area Award.  The name of the Award is the Robert J. McDonough/John T. Mooney/John H. Nooter Award.

Robert J. McDonough earned his 50-year pen as a member of the International Brotherhood while attending a National Apprenticeship Board meeting of which he was a member.  McDonough joined Local 1 in Chicago, IL on October 19, 1940.  He served the union in three different local functions.  He first served as an assistant business agent, being appointed in 1962.  He was elected president of Local 1 in 1963 and in 1965 he was appointed business manager, a position he was reelected to nine times before his retirement in 1990.  In 1971 he was instrumental in the establishment of Local 1’s apprentice school and office complex. 

He served as a member of the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Rules of the State of Illinois Board, the Boilermakers National Health & Welfare Board, and the Great Lakes and National Apprenticeship Committees.

John T. Mooney joined Hayes Boiler & Mechanical, Inc. in 1947 and worked as a boilermaker in the field.  Later he became chairman and owner of the company.  He was instrumental with Local 1’s Training Center.  He has served on many charitable and trade boards and associations, including Local 1’s Training and Education Fund, the Great Lakes Area Apprenticeship Committee and the National Apprenticeship Board.

John H. Nooter started working full time at the John Nooter Boiler Works Co. (the name was later changed to Nooter Corp.) in February of 1948 and worked in the construction, or Field Department, until he retired in 1980.

In 1965, John was appointed to the Missouri River Basin Apprenticeship Committee as a contractor representative for Local 27, Saint Louis, MO.  At that time he also started attending Boilermaker Contract Negotiations, and in 1970, he became Chairman of the Missouri River Basin Contract Negotiations Committee.  Bud Awe, International Vice-President, chaired the negotiations for the union.  John and Bud served three years together on the Negotiations Committee.

The Missouri River Basin Apprenticeship Committee elected John as Chairman in 1970, and he was made a member of the National Joint Board in the same year.  In April of 1977, John was elected Chairman of the National Joint Board and served as Chairman until April 1988.

When retiring from Nooter Corp. in 1980, the National Apprenticeship Program was just getting started on revising the new program and John was deeply involved with R.S.I., Secretary Dave Lewis, and the other committees working on the program.  Although he was retiring from the industry, John asked to stay on the Apprenticeship Committee until the new program was completed and was permitted to do so.

John has spent a great deal of his time since retiring in 1980 working with the Missouri River Basin and National Apprenticeship Program.  During the development of the new program he served on Program One: Apprenticeship Section.

2007 Great Lakes Area Representatives:

2007 McDonough/Mooney/Nooter Award Winner:
Joseph J. Garfield, Local 107

2007 McDonough/Mooney/Nooter Award Second Place:
William J. Sumner, Local 374

Recipients of the McDonough/Mooney/Nooter Award

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