Award Winners

Honored in 1998

As leader of the National Waterways Conference, Inc. for 38 years, Mr. Harry N. Cook has successfully advanced the interests of waterways proponents and generated extraordinary awareness of the inland waterways in the Government. He worked tirelessly to promote responsible investments and funding for the infrastructure that allows the entire waterways system – and the tens of thousands of jobs that depend upon it – to remain effective and viable.

Mr. Cook began his river career on the Tennessee – Tombigbee Waterway Development Authority, where he learned the fundamentals of waterborne transportation. He joined the National Waterways Conference in 1965. Guided and directed by a diverse and well-represented Board, Mr. Cook set forth to ensure that every waterway interest – port or terminal, inland or coastal, carrier or shipper – was represented by a single, unified organization.

Each year, as Congress considered funding for the Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works programs, Mr. Cook worked to ensure that no unfair user charges, taxes or funding cuts would be placed on any segment of the industry.

Mr. Cook has also been dedicated to international waterways organizations, particularly International Navigation Association (PIANC), and he has received multiple awards and recognition from the Department of Defense.