Dennis Conway receives prestigious NRCA J.A. Piper Award

The J.A. Piper Award is the roofing industry’s most prestigious honor and recognizes roofing professionals who have devoted constant outstanding service to the association and roofing industry.

The National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) has named Dennis Conway, principal and vice president of Commercial Roofers Inc., Las Vegas, recipient of its 78th annual J.A. Piper Award February 20 during the NRCA 2025 Industry Awards Ceremony in San Antonio. The J.A. Piper Award is the roofing industry’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, Dennis grew up around construction sites and went on to attend Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, where he majored in construction management. After graduation, he began a job as project engineer at Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co., Honolulu. He settled into the roofing industry as president of the largest 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, Dennis 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, Dennis bought the Las Vegas branch and renamed the company Commercial Roofers, where he and Scott were equal partners for more than 20 years.

Dennis 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 Dennis’s leadership, NRCA PROCertification® was developed.

Dennis has served on numerous committees including contractor management and workforce & membership. He currently 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.

Dennis also is an active lecturer at his alma mater. In 2014, he was instrumental in 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.

He has donated to the Roofing Alliance’s planned giving program as well as donated $150,000 to Colorado State University to build out a teleconference room. In honor of his dedication, the Roofing Alliance named its first construction management scholarship the L.B. Conway Scholarship in memory of Dennis’s wife of 22 years who passed away in 2013.

In 2024, Dennis was honored with the Roofing Alliance’s Bennett Award for his leadership with construction management schools and his invaluable contributions to the future excellence of the Roofing Alliance and industry.

“Our 78th recipient of the J.A. Piper Award has led a life pursuing educational excellence,” said Bob Daly, president of Kaw Roofing & Sheet Metal, Kansas City, Kansas, when presenting the award. “He 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, whose extraordinary efforts kept the association alive during the Great Depression.

About the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA)

Since 1886, the National Roofing Contractors Association has been the home for generations of entrepreneurial craftsmen and enterprises who shelter and protect America’s families and businesses and each other. Our vision is the recognition of our members as professionals and to unite the industry to that purpose. NRCA is one of the construction industry’s most respected trade associations and the voice of roofing professionals and leading authority in the roofing industry for information, education, technology and advocacy. It represents all segments of the roofing industry, including contractors; manufacturers; distributors; architects; consultants; engineers; building owners; and city, state and government agencies. For information about NRCA and its services and offerings, visit nrca.net.