PHCC Educational Foundation Announces Passing of Dick Irwin
Irwin remembered as "driving force" behind the Foundation's creation
FALLS CHURCH, VA — The Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors (PHCC) Educational Foundation announced that Raymond R. "Dick" Irwin passed away on Monday evening at the age of 93.
When Irwin first proposed the creation of the PHCC Educational Foundation in 1985, he worked tirelessly to get the industry support required to get the organization off the ground. His vision was the creation of a PHCC organization dedicated to serve the industry with a sole focus on education, but the response was often wary. Even the two candidates for PHCC election that year, John Ward and David Fox, both opposed it. Undeterred, Irwin concluded the proposal had been brought too quickly and that PHCC members and leaders needed a fuller understanding of what a Foundation would do and not do, since some worried that its role might compete with the association rather than complement it. He developed a “Why a Foundation” paper, and he and members of the executive committee talked about the proposal at every opportunity on the state and national levels.