Great speech last night by Dan Holohan.

Thanks, Brother John. We are thrilled to honor John Muldrow with the HeatingHelp.com Achievement Award.

Looking forward to seeing many of you there at Wetstock this summer!

@Steve Minnich LOL!

Thanks, @JohnNY.

I was delighted to see John Muldrow win the first HeatingHelp.com Achievement Award, which Erin came up with. Erin is a member of The Society.

John really inspires me. I wrote this about him for an upcoming Society newsletter:

John Muldrow, HVAC/R student

Fifty-year-old John Muldrow smiled as he accepted his diploma on May 16. He had worked hard for years at Mechanics Institute to earn that precious piece of paper, coming to class two nights a week and always thinking of his wife, Kismet and their 12-year-old daughter. He did this for them.

John’s enthusiasm for his trade is inspiring. He’s goes to work each day as an HVAC/R installer for Vivid Mechanical (based in Long Island City), arriving on the jobsite an hour before his official starting time so, “I can get my tools and other things in order.” John is a planner and it shows in everything he does. He told us that he loves that quiet time before his colleagues arrive and his day’s work of installing pipes and fan-coil units begins. “My work is my hobby,” he said. “I want to keep getting better at this. I love this trade because they pay me for my knowledge.” We asked John what the most valuable thing he learned at Mechanics Institute was. His eyes lit up and he went on for a while, talking about all the ins and outs of steam- and hot-water heating that he now fully understands. “Before I came to this school,” he said, “I knew how, but now I also know why. There’s a big difference between the two. That’s what they teach at Mechanics Institute. The whys of the science. Understanding why is where the person’s value really is.”

In planning for his future, John had read Napoleon Hill’s classic book on self-improvement, Think and Grow Rich. In that book, Mr. Hill tells the story of Andrew Carnegie. On the day John first visited The Society’s building at 20 West 44th Street and entered the Executive Office, he saw the bronze bust of Andrew Carnegie, who was a member and a benefactor of The Society, and knew that he was finally in the right place. “This was the real thing,” he said. “I felt like I was in the Pathmark of knowledge. I signed up right away.” We asked him if he found the school work difficult. He said, “I didn’t because I took the time to pay attention and to study. Some of the other students dropped out in the middle of the course and I asked myself how they could do that. They said they were tired. I told them that everyone gets tired, but that I will rest when I die. This is my time to work for my wife and my daughter.”

John Muldrow makes us all proud, and we suspect he also would have made Andrew Carnegie, Mechanics Institute’s benefactor, proud.