David Fleischner, executive vice president with Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC, a 46-year TCIA member company based in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, was inaugurated as the new chair of the TCIA Board of Directors during the Association’s annual meeting at Winter Management Conference 2022 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, in early February.
Arthur William Batson, III, chief financial officer at Lucas Tree Experts Company, a utility-contractor-accredited, 42-year TCIA member company based in Portland, Maine, was sworn in as the newest member of the board. Batson follows in the footsteps of his father, Art Batson, Jr., president of Lucas Tree Experts, who served on the TCIA Board and served as chair, in 1995.
TCIA was proud to honor the legacy and career of Will Nutter with the 2021 Award of Merit, posthumously, for his passion and his contributions to the industry as a leader, mentor and positive force for more than four decades.
TCIA’s Award of Merit is the highest honor paid by TCIA to an individual or company that has positively impacted the field of arboriculture, regardless of membership in the association.
Nutter, of Johnston, Iowa, passed away September 16, 2021, from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident in Colorado on September 11. He served as president and chief operating officer (COO) of Wright Tree Service and was the senior vice president and COO of Wright Service Corp., a 44-year TCIA member company based in Des Moines, Iowa
Jim Ingram, president and COO of Bartlett Tree Experts, an accredited, 47-year TCIA member company based in Stamford, Connecticut, was recognized with the Chair’s Award for his outstanding contributions to TCIA. The nominations for this award are made by TCIA’s president and Board of Directors. As president of Bartlett Tree Experts since 2013, Jim oversees the company’s 151 operations in four countries, including 39 U.S. states, Canada, Ireland and Great Britain.
TCIA honored Larry Abernathy, CTSP, with the Pat Felix Volunteer of the Year Award. This award is presented to a TCIA member volunteer who has gone above and beyond the call of duty and who has committed a great deal of time and effort toward the success of TCIA. Abernathy helped create an entry-level Utility Arborist Training Program in the California Community College system using TCIA’s Arborist Apprenticeship Year-1 curriculum. A vice president and general manager with Davey Tree Surgery, Abernathy is now retired after 49 years with Davey. Davey Tree Surgery is a subsidiary of The Davey Tree Expert Company, an accredited, 49-year TCIA member company based in Kent, Ohio.
Watch videos about these award recipients as well as other TCIA award recipients at awards.tcia.org.
