The Port of Houston Authority Executive Director H. Thomas Kornegay was named 2008 Maritime Person of the Year at the Greater Houston Port Bureau and the Marine Exchange of the West Gulf’s November 15 gala.
Kornegay has served as PHA’s executive director for 16 1/2 years after serving as the port authority’s managing director for five years. He joined the port authority’s engineering department in 1972 and was the project engineer on the Fentress Bracewell Barbours Cut Container Terminal, which opened in 1976 and became the busiest container terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Thomas P. Marian, chairman of the Greater Houston Port Bureau board, served as Master of Ceremonies for the 79th annual event. Proclamations were read by Harris County Pct. 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and Diane Lipton, President, East End Chamber of Commerce. Presenters included PHA Chairman Jim Edmonds (video); Clyde Fitzgerald, President, ILA – District office; William Diehl, P.E., Captain of the Port; Houston Pilots Capt. Mike Morris and Col. Len Waterworth, (Ret.), Commander, United States Army Corps of Engineers.