At The Masonry Society’s 2013 Annual meeting in Herndon, Virginia, TMS President Russell Brown presented the 2013 President’s Award to John G. Tawresey. In his address, Brown noted:

“One of the most enjoyable duties of TMS president is selecting the recipient of the president’s award. The selection process is very difficult, though, because we have so many outstanding members who give so freely of their time to our organization. The president’s award this year went to John Tawresey. As a founding member and past president, John is arguably one of the most, if not the most, influential members of TMS. This year, however, he was the person who, more than anyone else, enabled TMS to gain sole sponsorship of the masonry building code.

John has been persistent ever since I became an officer in TMS some 7 years ago in insisting that TMS deserves to be the sole sponsor of the code. The problem has been that we really had no leverage with ACI and SEI/ASCE to gain sole sponsorship. But John did not allow this to deter his mission. At the annual meeting in 2012 he announced to the TMS Executive Committee that he had managed to convince ACI’s leadership to allow a group from TMS to meet with their executive committee. A select group of TMS leaders attended this meeting, and made the pitch for TMS having sole sponsorship. The reception was remarkably positive, much to my surprise. They told us at the end of our presentation that they would support TMS sole sponsorship. I found out later that John had lobbied members of ACI Exec prior to this meeting, sort of “greasing the skids” for our pitch.

The ACI Board approved this action at their meeting in October, and all that now remains is to work out the separation agreement details.

It is my strong belief that this NEVER would have happened without the persistence of John Tawresey. Sole sponsorship of the masonry code will elevate TMS’s prestige in the masonry industry and the entire design and construction community.”