Butler Awarded NUCA 2024 Ditchdigger of the Year Award
The National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) proudly awarded Tom Butler the prestigious “Ditchdigger of the Year” Award, honoring his many years of service to the American underground utility industry and his years of support for NUCA’s successful government affairs programs.Â
“Tom has been a leader of our industry in the halls of Congress,” said Doug Carlson, NUCA Chief Executive Officer. “He’s been an integral part of NUCA’s programs across the last 14 years. His enthusiasm for our industry’s legislative program led to his appointment as our government affairs committee chairman in 2017, a post all of us are grateful he occupies. He inspires others with his passion for politics and his vast knowledge of the political machine all of us depend upon as Americans and as construction business leaders. Tom has rightfully earned the top recognition of this industry as the 2024 Ditchdigger of the Year.”
Tom Butler is the senior estimator at Kimmins Contracting Corp., and was the chief estimator at Burgess Civil, LLC, both located in the Tampa, Florida area. He has been involved in the complex field of construction estimating for almost 20 years. Butler also served in the U.S. Air Force as a security specialist in the early 1990s. Butler holds a degree in mathematics from the University of South Florida, and was a Phi Beta Kappa member.
Butler served as NUCA’s chairman in 2023 and vice-chairman in 2022. He has also served as NUCA’s governmental affairs committee chairman since 2017. He has been involved in the association’s Washington-based advocacy program since 2011, attending numerous Washington Summit fly-ins to represent his NUCA Florida chapter. Butler continues to serve as the national organization’s erudite chairman of the Government Affairs Committee.
Butler continues to inspire others in the industry with his good cheer and insider political knowledge and deserves to be recognized as NUCA’s Ditchdigger of the Year.
This national award is awarded to a NUCA contractor member who has made a significant contribution to NUCA and the underground utility construction and excavation industry. The 2024 “Ditchdigger of the Year” Award was presented to Butler at the association’s Annual Meeting held in March of this year at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida.
