Photo taken at the September 13th presentation of the Tom Taber award by Mike DelVeccio (on left), long time president of Tri-State, to Capt. Bill McKelvey.
Tom Taber Award
Tri-State Railway Historical Society's extraordinary service award was created in 1975 after the passing of Thomas Townsend Taber II, a member and one the club's founding fathers. A former Mayor of Madison, he worked with the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders to create the Morris County Board of Public Transportation in 1961 to champion public transportation within the County. Mr. Taber's office was the former Railway Express portion of the Madison station, where Tri-State's first membership meetings were held. The award is presented as needed, and it remains exclusive. In 43 years where several hundred people have been members, only sixteen have received it. The idea for the service award came from Bob Bahrs just after his term as president, who also procured the section of rail and spikes and had it manufactured.
1975 Don Dorflinger
1976 Homer R. Hill
1977 Don Dorflinger
1978 Tom Nemeth
1979 Bill Chaplik
1980 John K. Fiorilla
1981 Robert Rose
1982 Vince Stagnitto
1991 Dave Dutcher
1992 Dave Dutcher
1993 John Hemmings
1995 Chris Mazzei
1998 Mike Finfer
2008 John & Gisela Drennan
2010 Rich Wisneski
2014 Don Oberding
2018 William J. "Capt. Bill" McKelvey