Rudy Leming Awarded the 1998 Thomas Crowley Trophy
Crowley Maritime Corporations Highest Honor
(Jacksonville, FL; February 12, 1999) Rudy Leming, Crowley American Transports Director of Port Operations in Jacksonville, was awarded the 1998 Thomas Crowley Trophy, Crowley Maritime Corp.s highest honor, at ceremonies held today at Crowleys Jacksonville port maintenance facility.
The trophy was one of only two awarded for 1998. Maynard Willms, Vice President of the Crowley subsidiary Vessel Management Services received the other trophy in January in Seattle.
Created over a decade ago, the Thomas Crowley Trophy award honors employees with outstanding performance, whose dedication, leadership, initiative and productivity most clearly reflect those of the companys founder. The trophy, a limited edition, bronze sculpture depicting young Thomas Crowley as he ferried goods to and from ships on San Francisco Bay in the early 1890s, is a tribute to the founder of the company as well as the award recipient.
Tom Crowley, Jr., President, Chairman and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corp., and grandson of the founder, presented the award at the ceremony, which was attended by more than 200 terminal employees and Crowley senior managers.
“Rudy has demonstrated excellence in everything he has done, and his contributions to the progress and success of the company have been outstanding,” Crowley said. “He is a very worthy recipient of this award, and I was pleased to be able to present it to him.”
Leming is widely credited with helping Crowley achieve ISO 9002 registration at the terminal and increasing productivity at both the Jacksonville Port Authority terminal and Crowleys private Ro/Ro facility. In addition, he was instrumental in helping Crowley achieve Ford Motor Companys prestigious Q1 Award in recognition of the companys sustained levels of excellence in its quality systems, performance and customer satisfaction.
“The Thomas Crowley Trophy is the highest aspiration of any Crowley employee, and I am deeply honored to receive it,” Leming said. “It could not have been achieved individually without the hard work and dedication of my team members here in Jacksonville. They are the best in the industry, and I thank them very much for their support.”
Leming attended school at New Jerseys Mercer and Brookdale Junior Colleges on basketball scholarships. A knee injury ended his basketball career and he went to work in the maritime industry in 1976 on the docks in Port Elizabeth, NJ. Over the years, he has performed ship side surveys, cargo handling services and equipment maintenance for a variety of companies.
When he went to work for Delta Lines in January 1984, Crowley was in the process of buying the company, and after the sale went through, he was transferred to port operations at Tioga and Pettys Island. Leming worked his way up from maintenance manager to terminal manager to director of port operations, a position he held for five years before assuming his present position in Jacksonville in 1997.
Crowleys Jacksonville terminal complex consists of a 65-acre Ro/Ro terminal used primarily for its Puerto Rico service, which features four southbound sailings per week, and a 50-acre Lo/Lo terminal leased from the Jacksonville Port Authority, which handles about eight sailings a week to South America, Mexico, the Virgin Islands and the Bahamas. Another eight to 10 acres of JPA property is being used as overflow. About 200 employees work for Crowley at the two terminals.
Oakland-based Crowley Maritime Corp., founded in 1892, is primarily a family- and employee-owned company engaged in integrated logistics, marine transportation and related services. The corporation, with more than 100 offices in major ports and cities around the world, has five primary operating subsidiaries: Crowley American Transport, Crowley Marine Services, Crowley Petroleum Transport, Vessel Management Services, and Crowley Logistics.