The National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) named Dennis Conway, principal and vice president of Commercial Roofers Inc. in Las Vegas, as the recipient of its 78th annual J.A. Piper Award on February 20 during the 2025 Industry Awards Ceremony in San Antonio.
The J.A. Piper Award is NRCA’s most prestigious honor and recognizes roofing professionals who have devoted constant outstanding service to the association and roofing industry.
With his father working for a heavy-equipment manufacturer, Conway grew up around construction sites and attended Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., where he majored in construction management. After graduation, he began a job as a project engineer at Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co., Honolulu. He settled into the roofing industry as president of a large roofing contractor in the South Pacific, where he remained until 1990 when the company was sold.
After starting his own roofing company and selling it to employees five years later, Conway accepted a position as regional manager for the southern California office of Bryant Universal in Anaheim. During a company reorganization, he transferred to Las Vegas. In 1996, along with Scott Howard, another regional manager, Conway bought the Las Vegas branch and renamed the company Commercial Roofers. He and Howard were equal partners for more than 20 years.
Conway joined NRCA in 1986 after he became president of Honolulu Roofing. He served three terms on the board of directors and two terms as vice president on the executive committee. In 2016, he served as NRCA’s chairman of the board, where he led efforts to help develop NRCA’s Training for Roof Application Careers, which launched in 2019. Also, under Conway’s leadership, NRCA PROCertification was developed.
Conway has served on numerous committees, including contractor management, workforce, and membership. He serves as ROOFPAC advisory chair and is a member of the Melvin Kruger-endowed scholarship and construction management committees for the Roofing Alliance. In 2009, he was elected to the Roofing Alliance’s board of trustees.
Conway also is an active lecturer at his alma mater. In 2014, he contributed to establishing the construction management school at Colorado State University, launched through the Roofing Alliance. That initiative led to the inaugural Roofing Alliance Construction Management Student Competition in 2015.
“Our 78th recipient of the J.A. Piper Award has led a life pursuing educational excellence,” says Bob Daly, president of Kaw Roofing and Sheet Metal, Kansas City, Kan., when presenting the award. “[Conway] believed that if you build it, new generations of roofing professionals will come. He believed in building pathways for students to learn about the roofing industry and giving them mentors to teach on-the-job skills. He believed in drawing excitement to the industry through student competitions that use real roofing projects, challenging and further developing those skills. He believed in such things. And he made them reality.”
First presented in 1948, the J.A. Piper Award is named for former NRCA president Joseph A. Piper.