Marine Link
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

ABB’s Schwarz Honored with USMMA McCready Award

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

October 6, 2020

Edward Schwarz, Vice President for ABB Marine and Ports, received the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s Admiral McCready Award as the 51st recipient.

Edward Schwarz, Vice President for ABB Marine and Ports, received the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s Admiral McCready Award as the 51st recipient.

Edward Schwarz, Vice President for ABB Marine and Ports, received the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s Rear Admiral Lauren S. McCready Award as the 51st recipient.

Edward A. Waryas, Jr., Board Member for NYSE-traded KNOT Offshore Partners, LP as the 43rd recipient of the award and co-chair of the award’s committee made the announcement.

The Lauren S. McCready Award is intended to recognize graduates of the United States Merchant Marine Academy who have made significant technical achievements in the marine industry or who have contributed organizational or managerial support to making such technical achievements possible.

The award is named in honor of Rear Adm. Lauran Strong McCready, the first and longtime Head, Department of Engineering at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy located at Kings Point, N.Y.

Schwarz, a 2000 Kings Point graduate, leads ABB’s efforts to bring new technologies to traditional vessel applications. This includes the first all-electric zero emissions vessels for the Maid of the Mist Corp and other game-changing efforts to solve modern maritime environmental challenges.

A brief history of the Admiral McCready Award
Rear Admiral Lauren S. McCready was one of the original founders and builders of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. McCready joined the staff of the U.S. Maritime Commission as Cadet Training Instructor in 1940 following a start earlier that year at the Maritime Officers Training School at Fort Trumbull.

In February of 1942 he began the conversion of the Walter P. Chrysler Estate into the newly commissioned U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point. He was the First Head of the Department of Engineering while simultaneously overseeing the physical construction of Fulton Hall. Over the next three decades he achieved the Engineering Department’s first accreditation, founded the Nuclear Program, and later was the first Director of the National Maritime Research Center at Kings Point.

In 1967, the first recipient of the Admiral McCready award recognized the exemplary accomplishments of Ted Kedzierski, Class 1950, who served as Chief Engineer on the trail blazing nuclear merchant ship NS Savannah. Past winners have included Warren G. Leback, past U.S. Maritime Administrator; Eugene K. Pentimonti, Vice President of Government Affairs for Maersk Sealand; and Robert P. Magee, Chairman of the American Shipping Group.

The Admiral McCready committee is headed by co-chairman Edward Waryas (’70) and John Hatley (’76). Nominations for future awards should be forwarded to Waryas at [email protected] or Hatley [email protected].


PREVIOUS RADM LAUREN S. MCCREADY AWARD WINNERS


  • 1967 Thaddeus Kedzierski, ’50
  • 1968 Dr. Walter M. Maclean, ’45, P.E.
  • 1969 Dr. William B. Morgan, ’50
  • 1970 Dr. Charles R. Cushing, ’56, P.E.
  • 1971 Capt. Warren G. Leback, ’44
  • 1972 Stanley D. Wheatley, ’47
  • 1973 Robert E. Whitam, ’46
  • 1974 Philip Wallach, ’50
  • 1975 Harlan T. Haller, ’44
  • 1976 Fred S. Sherman, ’55
  • 1977 Nicola F. Pergola, ’49
  • 1978 Ellsworth L. Peterson, ’46
  • 1979 George A. Uberti, ’48
  • 1980 RADM Thomas A. King, ’42
  • 1981 Charles H. Gross, Jr., ’56
  • 1982 David A. O’Neil, ’61
  • 1983 Eugene K. Pentimonti, ’64
  • 1984 John W. Boylston, ’61
  • 1985 William A. Creelman, ’50
  • 1986 Dr. Donald Liu, ’62
  • 1987 Louis D. Chirillo, ’43
  • 1988 Marcus J. Johnson, ’64
  • 1989 W. Patrick Keene, ’62
  • 1990 Donald W. Forster, ’61
  • 1991 Richard F. Smith, ’46
  • 1992 Allen Zang, ’48
  • 1993 William H. Van Cott, Jr., ’44
  • 1994 Vincent F. Roth, ’64
  • 1995 Anthony P. Romano, ’57
  • 1996 Robert H. Kiefer, ’56
  • 1997 James A. Harbach, ’68
  • 1998 Robert Magee, Jr., ’69
  • 1999 William L. McCarthy, ’69
  • 2000 Daniel W. Kabel, ’77
  • 2001 Lawrence H. O’Toole, ’64
  • 2002 Ronald H. Williamson, ’56
  • 2003 Dr. William Sembler, P.E. ’75
  • 2004 Milton Gonzales, ’76
  • 2005 William Sember, v68
  • 2006 Mary Culnane, ’80
  • 2007 Edward F. Hoffman, ’69
  • 2008 John F. Hatley, P.E. ’76
  • 2009 Edward A. Waryas, Jr. ’70
  • 2010 Eric W. Seither, ’76
  • 2011 Gary W. Van Tassel, ’73
  • 2012 James D. Fernie, ’71
  • 2013 Arthur Divens, ’79
  • 2014 Arthur Denning, ’76
  • 2016 Mark Donahue, ’72
  • 2017 Roy Bleiberg, ’89

Subscribe for
Maritime Reporter E-News

Maritime Reporter E-News is the maritime industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email five times per week