CTEF Honors Tile Contractors with Inaugural Dan Hecox Service Award
The first recipients of CTEF’s Dan Hecox Service Award. Here, John Roberts (left) and Woody Sanders (right), are congratulated by Scott Carothers, CTEF director of certification and training.
The Ceramic Tile Education Foundation (CTEF) proudly announces that it has created the Dan Hecox Service Award to be given out annually at Coverings. The first recipients are John Roberts and Woody Sanders, two tile industry professionals and Certified Tile Installers who regularly go above and beyond in support of the CTEF Mission to raise the quality of ceramic tile installation. They received the award on July 8th at Coverings 2021 in Orlando, Florida.
Why the Dan Hecox Service Award?
Dan Hecox’s passion, willingness to help attitude, and commitment to the tile industry, and tile installation excellence were beyond description. For example, he routinely volunteered to help out CTEF at trade events and conferences; he served as CTI Evaluator to help expand the certification program; he promoted tile installation best practices to interior design students so they could better specify tile projects.
After a short illness, Dan Hecox CTI #1215 died at the age of 52 on September 21, 2020. The Dan Hecox Service Award recognizes his strong service-minded spirit in support of CTEF and the tile industry.
The 2021 Dan Hecox Service Award Recipients
The first-ever recipients of the Dan Hecox Service Award are similarly committed to CTEF and the tile industry.
- John Roberts CTI #1278, having been a tile setter for almost 40 years and principal of John Roberts Designs LLC in Georgia focusing on high-end residential remodeling is now employed by the Beno J. Gundlach Company as a tool sales representative. In addition to being a CTI, John is a CTI Evaluator and volunteers to help educate younger tile setters at various NTCA Workshops and at The Georgia Skills CEFGA.
- Woody Sanders CTI #1295 is principal of DW Sanders Tile & Stone in Marietta, Georgia. He fiercely and generously supports the CTEF CTI and ACT tile installation certification programs and expanding their reach and visibility within the tile industry. He sits on the NTCA Technical, Education, and Business committees to help steer the tile industry’s future.
“The mission of the Ceramic Tile Education Foundation takes on special meaning when Certified Tile Installers like Dan Hecox, John Roberts, and Woody Sanders give so much of themselves to inspire other installers to become better, educate specifiers to understand the complexity of installing tile, and encourage the next generations to aspire to industry best practices, methods and standards,” says Scott Carothers, CTEF director of certification and training. “The newly created Dan Hecox Service Award allows us to recognize those who – like Dan – embrace a vision of excellence for tile installation and inspire all CTIs to be part of making that vision a reality.”
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