Remembering William Lakin, CR

William J. “Bill” Lakin, CR

2005 ASCR/RIA President

2001 Martin L. King Award Recipient

Bill Lakin, CR (Certified Restorer) was the 2005 RIA President and 2001 recipient of the Martin L. King (MLK) award. Bill passed away in his home town of Staffordshire England on January 8 of this year. Funeral services were held by the family on January 19 at the Stafford Crematorium in the United Kingdom.

Bill is survived by his wife Sue Lakin a frequent companion with Bill at RIA events over the past three decades.

During the early stages of his career, Bill was active in the UK’s local cleaning industry association and was the longest serving President of the National Carpet Cleaners Association (NCCA) having served for seven years.

In the 1980’s Bill was an explorer, seeker of knowledge and part of the “early wave” of Brits who joined RIA looking to network with US and Canadian restorers and for advanced education in the restoration arts and sciences offered through RIA’s NIFR division (The National Institute of Fire Restoration). 

Bill endeared himself to his fellow North American RIA members and became an association’s “English Favorite Son” and mainstay at ASCR and NIFR seminars and events two to three times a year.

Bill was a great student and early adopter. Taking home what he learned in the states to help better educate England’s cleaners and restorers on the nuances, specialized techniques, chemicals and equipment that helped develop the restoration and insurance repair marketplace in the UK.

Bill often flew across the pond to Northern Virginia in the late 1980’s and 1990’s to help Marty King prepare for the Certified Restorer course which was known as “CR Hell Week” in those days. In fact he was at the class in such a role in 1988, the year RIA honorary members Cliff Zlotnik and Pete Consigli took their CR class!

Bill was close friends with pioneering restoration chemist Jean Mateson of Mateson Chemical Company, who posthumously received the MLK award in 1995.

Bill became a great instructor, teaching restoration course work throughout the UK.

In the early 2000’s Bill “Anglicized” ASCR’s version of the “Guidelines for Fire and Smoke Damage Repair” re-published under the NIDR brand (The National Institute of Disaster Restoration) by editing the document to conform with localized language and the metric system. ASCR published the Guidelines as a United Kingdom edition. It could be said this was the genesis of the globalization of RIA.

Bill and his wife Sue were close friends of the late Marty and Judy King, so it seems only appropriate that the sad news of his passing was formally announced to the RIA membership last night in Austin Texas at the Martin L. King Award ceremony that annually recognizes an individual for their contribution to the restoration industry. The MLK award is RIA’s most prestigious individual honor which pays tribute to Marty’s legacy.

Bill was the first and only RIA president to preside over the organization from his home abroad. In 2005 at ASCR’s annual Fall Conference in St Louis, Marty King was the Master of Ceremonies at an association sponsored Roast of the Zlotnik, which was orchestrated by Consigli and friends!

From the podium Bill Lakin performed a hilarious roast segment that anyone who was in the room is not likely to forget, stripping down from a three-piece men’s suit to a pink ballerina’s costume.

Bill’s gregarious and self-effacing demeanor with his British dry sense of humor made it one of the highlights of the roast which culminated to my great surprise when the entire immediate Zlotnik family flew in to support me!

In 2008 in Grapevine, Texas, Bill Lakin presented the MLK award to Pete Consigli due to Marty’s absence from the RIA convention that year. It was one of the few times I can remember that Pete was speechless!

According to Rusty Amarante, CR; 2006 MLK award recipient and 2008 RIA President:

“No one could brighten a room with his passion more than Bill, my term as RIA President would have not been as successful without him.  We have lost a great brother of our industry”