Towing Hall of Fame Announces Honorees for 2023
The International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum has announced it will induct 10 new members into its Hall of Fame this fall. The inductees, including two posthumous honorees, hail from the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“This year’s incredible group of inductees reflects the diversity of leadership in today’s towing and recovery industry,” says Bill Gratzianna, president of the towing organization. “The class of 2023 includes innovators, forward-thinkers, authors, movers and shakers, and feet-on-the-ground operators, all of whom are well-deserving of our industry’s highest honor.”
The 2023 honorees are, in alphabetical order:
• Mary Leigh Barbusin, formerly executive director of the Garden State Towing Association, Little Silver, NJ (posthumous)
• Albert Battelini of Battelini Wrecker Sales, a Vineland, NJ-based family-owned and -operated towing company since 1921
• Gerardo Cortez González, founder of Grúas Monterrey, a leader in towing services and equipment sales since 1971 based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
• Bruce Jackson, a pioneer in the towing industry based in Orleans, Ontario, Canada, who introduced Holmes wreckers to France and later the NRC sliding rotator to the U.K. and France
• Ruth Cardwell Landau, manager of Fryers Towing Service, Daytona Beach, FL, and a longtime leader of the Women of the Towing and Recovery Association of America (WTRAA), which named Landau Tow Woman of the Year in 2011 and of which she currently is first vice president
• Eric Luchini of Luchini’s Towing and Recovery, a provider of heavy-duty towing services in Las Cruces and southwest New Mexico
• Bud Morgan, formerly of Morgan Towing, a leading provider of towing services for over 50 years in Muskogee and southeastern, OK (posthumous)
• Jon Redman of Redman Fleet Services Inc., serving the Northern Virginia area since 1977
• Rudy Smith, a third-generation owner of a 103-year-old towing company in New Orleans, LA
• David Whealon, founder of Whealon Towing & Service Inc., a towing services provider in Fond du Lac, WI, since 1984
The Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame was launched in 1986 to recognize individuals who have made substantial contributions to the towing and recovery industry. “The industry realized it was time to display the roots of the profession,” according to the museum. Over 300 towing professionals have entered the Hall of Fame to date.
Hall of Fame candidates must have 20 years of experience running a towing business in an outstanding and exemplary manner, demonstrate leadership in a project with a dynamic and lasting effect on the towing industry, and/or create a product or service with a significant and lasting effect on towing professionals.
The inductees will be officially recognized at a formal ceremony on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at the Westin Hotel Chattanooga during the organization’s annual Museum Weekend scheduled for September 28 to October 1, 2023.