Photo Provided U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, from left, is shown with Rep. Chris Stewart, both R-Ohio, Wheeling native Tom Altmeyer of Altmeyer and Associates, Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, Murray Energy President and CEO Robert E. Murray, LTI President and CEO Robert Gentile, Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., and Mike Eckard of FirstEnergy and president of the Washington Coal Club. Murray and Gentile received Liftetime Achievement Awards from the club Wednesday.

BANNOCK — Two Belmont County residents who are longtime leaders of the coal industry were honored for their work last week.

The Washington Coal Club bestowed Lifetime Achievement Awards upon Leonardo Technologies Inc. President and CEO Robert Gentile and to Murray Energy Corp. President and CEO Robert E. Murray on Wednesday. The recognitions were handed down during the organization’s yearly banquet in Washington, D.C.

The Washington Coal Club is a nonprofit organization consisting of members with diverse coal-related interests and backgrounds. They range from coal producers to transporters, legislators and policymakers. It periodically honors deserving individuals who have proven their dedication by spending a career advancing the betterment of the U.S. coal industry.

“I am very honored to receive this acknowledgment from a community that has meant so much to the economic betterment of the entire nation,” Gentile said. “I look forward to continuing this work during an ever-changing energy landscape.”

Gentile has served as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and the U.S. Department of Interior’s Director of the Office of Surface Mining. The Steubenville native now lives in Belmont County and spent a portion of his career heading two Eastern Ohio coal companies, N&G Construction and the Ohio River Collieries Company. A graduate of Franciscan University and the University of Toledo, he managed federal fossil fuel research programs carried out by universities, private industry and federal laboratories. He also managed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and oversaw the first commercial drawdown of strategic oil stocks during the first Gulf War.

He serves as a director of the International Energy Agency’s Coal Industry Advisory Board and serves on the U.S.-Turkey Business Development Council, U.S. Department of Commerce. He was a charter member of the National Coal Council, a former member of the Board of the National Mining Association, and past president of the Washington Coal Club.

He formed LTI, an engineering, strategic thinking and energy technology company providing services to both private and government entities, in 1999.

Murray, a native of Bethesda, also said he was honored to receive the award.

The 1957 graduate of the former Bethesda High School now operates the largest privately owned coal company in the United States. Headquartered just west of St. Clairsville along National Road, Murray Energy Corp. produces an estimated 65 million tons of coal each year and employs about 5,500 people in six states.

Founded by Murray in 1988, the company operates 12 active mines, eight coal transloading facilities, mining equipment manufacturing and fabrication facilities, several truck, rail and river terminals and more than 500 oil and gas wells.

Murray and his wife, Brenda, have supported recent community and educational development efforts, including construction of a new tower and memorial plaza for Bethesda’s village clock and construction of an expanded facility for East Richland Christian Schools.