Lee received many awards and honors throughout the years. I’ve seen many chang like magazine format sizing, and so I have a lot of knowledge and interest in the his- tory of our industry. History of the GPLA Recently, I had the opportunity to attend one of the most prestigious annual events in our industry: The Greater Philadelphia Locksmith Association’s annual banquet and awards ceremony. This event isn’t only prestigious — it’s one of the best. When else do you have the opportunity to admire a “Who’s Who” of the industry, dress up in tuxedos and gowns, and enjoy a great meal and cocktails, while waiting to see who’s earned the most coveted awards? GPLA has a long and storied history be- cause it’s the second oldest continuously operating locksmith association in the U.S. The only older association is the Master 44 KEYNOTES JANUARY 2014 ersey, which was founded in 1929 as chapter nine of the American Master Locksmith Association, a predecessor of ALOA as a national lock- smith association. In 1931, MLANJ broke off from AMLA and formed their current association. The AMLA ended operation the same year and the 13 remaining chapters closed, leaving MLANJ the only organized locksmith association at that time. One of the chapters was in Philadelphia, but unlike the chapter in New Jersey, it didn’t survive the Great Depression. However, in 1949 a group of Philadelphia locksmiths decided to start another local locksmith as- sociation and the GPLA was born. The Philadelphia Award In 1953, GPLA decided to create an award called the Philadelphia Award. Many con- sider this to be the most prestigious award given in our industry, comparable to the Os- car if we were to use the movie industry as a parallel. It’s oſten this award that brings the “Who’s Who” of our industry to the GPLA banquet. Many recipients return each year to welcome the newest recipient. There have been 68 recipients of the Phila- delphia Award, including Leonard Singer, William Zipf Sr., Weigand Jensen, Rex Par- malee, Bill Reed, Billy Edwards, Thomas Hennessy, A. J. Hoffman, Gerry Finch, Brian Costley, James Glazier, Steve Young, Jim Watt, Gale Johnson, Jay Long, Clyde Rober- son, and four generations of Millers — John C., Harry C., Clay and Mark. At this point, you might be thinking, “John, why are you giving me this history lesson in Keynotes? What does this have to do with ALOA?” To make the ALOA connection, 14 presi- dents of ALOA have won the Philadelphia WWW.ALOA.ORG
