Award. These presidents were Ernest Johan- nesen, Edwin Toepfe, William Meacham, Constant Maffey, Charles Hetherington, Joe Jackman, Evelyn Wersonick, Henry Printz, Breck Camp, David Lowell, Dal- las Brooks, John Greenan, Hans Mejlshede and our current president, Thomas De- mont. Additionally, two past presidents of SAVTA are also recipients — Henry Printz and Skip Eckert. Sadly, Skip passed away just a few weeks aſter receiving the award this past year. The number of Philadelphia Award re- cipients that have also served as ALOA vice presidents and directors are too many to list. The GPLA link doesn’t end there, either. Bill Young and Bob Mock, two of the most recent ALOA presidents are also former GPLA presidents. The connection between ALOA and GPLA doesn’t end there. In 1954, the initial struc- ture of ALOA was decided in the kitchen of Hermann C. Henssler, Jr., the day aſter the GPLA banquet. GPLA founding member, Robert Nelson, was one of the founding members of ALOA, along with Henssler. To this day GPLA shares deep connec- tions with ALOA. I currently serve on the ALOA board with Southeast Director Jim Weidman, grandson of John Weidman. John was a founding member of GPLA and 1962 recipient of the Philadelphia Award. So, what’s all this have to do with insti- tutional locksmiths? Well, the Philadel- phia Award isn’t the only industry award conveyed at the annual GPLA convention. The Lee Rognon Award This year, while I was sitting in my tuxedo enjoying the food, cocktails and conversa- tion, the description of an award recipient started to sound vaguely familiar (I’m sure that my partner, Marykay, and my friends around the table knew they were talking about me before I did). Sven Helwig began to read a list of qualities that I could also re- late to: Instructor. Probably a couple dozen WWW.ALOA.ORG in the ballroom, I thought. Author. There were plenty of them in the room as well. Hell, there were two other authors sitting at my table alone. Publisher. There were at least a half dozen of them in the room. Boy Scout Leader. More than a handful, to be sure. But when Sven mentioned rubber duck collector, I thought, “Wow! There’s another one here?” But there wasn’t another rub- ber duck collector. So I got up and walked to the front of them room, and for once I was something that anyone who knows me “Lee was known to show up at small and large trade shows and was always willing to meet new people and discuss anything about the industry she loved.” would never think I could be — speechless. I was presented the Lee Rognon Award. The award is presented to a person for “fos- tering cooperation between associations.” I knew what the award was about because I’d seen it conveyed numerous times. I was there in 2008 when current AIL Trustee Vernon Kelley received his award. I also knew Lee Rognon had something to do with ALOA, but didn’t know the whole history, so I did some research. Let’s just say that Mrs. Rognon had a lot to do with ALOA. The Honorable Mrs. Rognon Lee was married to one of the founding members of ALOA, Robert Rognon. Wives Lee Rognon Award from the Greater Philadelphia Locksmith Association in October 2013. helping husbands with locksmith association business is commonplace, even today. How- ever, as I learned more, I found out Lee was a driving force in ALOA in her own right. Her original title was acting secretary, then executive secretary and later was named the first executive director of ALOA. She served in these roles for 20 years, from 1954 to 1975. During this time she traveled around the country promoting ALOA and the lock- smith industry. She was said to be willing to help other associations in any way she could. She’s even given credit for helping start Toronto Association of Locksmiths (TAOL) when she offered ALOA’s services to conduct training in Toronto aſter meeting Leonard J. Passarello (TAOL member #001) at an ALOA convention in San Francisco. Lee was known to show up at small and large trade shows and was always willing to meet new people and discuss anything about the industry she loved. In 1997, Bill Reed named Lee one of the five movers and shakers in the locksmith industry of the past 50 years (TNL 12/97). Breck Camp wrote about Lee just aſter her death, “She was a strong lady, iron willed, but tempered with a heavy dose of South- ern gentility. However, much like Scarlett of Gone With the Wind fame, she was more than capable of removing the mantle of southern aristocracy and donning the gloves of combat whenever the situation veiled for it. Oſten criticized, but always respected, she JANUARY 2014 KEYNOTES 45
