Oswego, NY – The Central New York Retail Lumber Dealers Association (CNYRLDA) has named Chuck Handley, President/Owner of Burke’s Home Center in Oswego, as the Lumber Person of the Year, according to Steve Ciccone, Regional Director of Northeast Retail Lumber Association (NRLA). Handley will be recognized at the CNYRLDA annual meeting and dinner in Auburn on November 19th.
“The Lumber Person of the Year Award is a very prestigious award in the Lumber and Building Material Industry. It is someone who has served their association for the betterment of the industry, is active in their community, and runs a good business,” said Ciccone. “Chuck is very active with the group and in many ways a leader and mentor to others on the CNYRLDA Board of Directors. He fosters the idea that all lumber yards and home centers across CNY should work together.”
CNYRLDA is a professional organization of independent lumber dealers from around the greater Central New York area. It is a chapter of a larger organization, the Northeast Retail Lumber Association, which serves the seven states in the Northeast including: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Handley has been involved with CNYRLDA for 14 years. He has held several positions at CNYRLDA including officer and President.
“This is really an award for Burke’s Home Center, my brother Tom, and all of the employees that have helped us build such a strong reputation in the Central New York community over the past 84 years,” said Handley. “I appreciate the recognition and am grateful to have been named this year’s recipient.”
“It is truly an honor in our industry to win this award,” he added.
Handley started his career in the lumber and building material industry upon joining the family business, T.J. Burke’s, in 1977. T.J. Burke’s, which would later become Burke’s Home Center, was founded in 1926, when Chuck’s great grandfather, Timothy J. Burke, purchased a sawmill named Post & Henderson. Timothy Burke managed the firm with his son Edward “Tabby” Burke until the elder Burke passed away in 1948. Edward Burke ran the store until 1967. In 1967, Timothy Burke’s grandson William (Chuck’s father) took over the company and later transferred the business to his son’s Chuck and Tom, who are partners today in the business.
Chuck was instrumental in transforming the business from an industrial and retail lumber supplier to a full-line home center in the 1980’s, adding a 6,000-sq.-ft. showroom to the 1,000-sq.-ft.-store and then opening a second location in Fulton.
He is active in the Central New York-community serving as Government Affairs Committee of Oswego’s Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Executive Board of Oswego’s Harborfest (an annual festival that draws 150,000 people to the city of Oswego), and chairman of the Harborfest Programming Committee, where he and the committee have booked national recording acts such as .38 Special, Joan Jett, Kansas, Little River Band, and Blood Sweat & Tears. He has been heavily involved in supermodified auto racing, and served as president and CEO of the International Supermodified Association, while promoting racing all across the country.
The Northeastern Retail Lumber Association (NRLA) was established in New York in 1894 by a small group of pioneering lumbermen who recognized the value of cooperation. Today, the NRLA is a 1,150-member association representing independent lumber and building material suppliers and associated businesses in New York and the six New England states.
Burke’s Do it Best Home Centers have been serving the Central New York area for nearly 85 years. They have two convenient locations at 38 East Second Street in Oswego and 65 North Second Street in Fulton. For more information visit them online at http://www.burkes.doitbest.com/home.aspx.
