Dan Rademacher

During the 95th annual Education and Business Conference, IAPMO recognized committee members who have attained milestone status for their service to IAPMO. The recipient of this year’s Bruce Pfeiffer Committee Member of the Year is one year short of the 20-year milestone, but we gave him an award anyway.

A 19-year member of the Education and Training Committee, Dan Rademacher has time and time again proven to be one of IAPMO’s most reliable, knowledgeable and effective educators, and his contributions to the committee are immeasurable. His strong work ethic, unrivaled knowledge, and welcoming personality are all part of what makes him such a great teacher. What truly distinguishes him, however, his overarching philosophy that we should always be learning — and by extension, always be teaching. He lives by an ethos that says, “If I know something, I want you to know it, too.”

After serving his five-year apprenticeship with UA Local 41, Rademacher obtained his journeyman license in 1995 and worked in the field for another year before joining the Montana Building Codes Bureau as the plumbing and mechanical inspector for western Montana. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Chief Plumbing/Mechanical Inspector, a position he held for eight years.

In 2001, he received from the UA and Michigan State University the title of Certified Instructor of Journeyman and Apprentices after completing the five-year curriculum in instructor training. In 2005, Rademacher was appointed as a National Seminar Instructor for IAPMO and joined our Education and Training Committee, which he now chairs.

Since winning IAPMO’s 2014 Industry Person of the Year, Rademacher joined Viega as program manager of its Trades Education Network, which partners with training directors and instructors through local union halls, training centers, and trade programs to enrich their programs and provide them with the curriculum, tools and fittings they need to teach their students how to press. Under his leadership, the program itself has seen a significant shift from teaching skills to teaching how to teach skills. 

In 2019, he won the World Plumbing Council’s Education and Training Scholarship award, using the proceeds to travel to Rwanda to share his knowledge of the plumbing industry with local plumbers and meet with government officials to advocate for the adoption of plumbing codes and standards.

Elected president of ASSE International in 2020, it should be obvious that Rademacher is pretty relentless in his desire to be a font of knowledge for our industry, well deserving of this honor even if he is a few months short of his 20th year of committee service. And we’ll honor him next year when he gets there!

For forging a career championing education and working hard to ensure that IAPMO members always know what he knows, we say thank you by honoring Dan Rademacher with the 2024 Bruce Pfeiffer Committee Member of the Year.

“I am truly honored and deeply grateful to have been named IAPMO's 2024 Bruce Pfeiffer Committee Member of the Year,” Rademacher said. “This recognition means so much to me, and I want to express my sincere thanks for the opportunity to contribute alongside such talented and dedicated professionals.

“I am proud to be part of the IAPMO community and appreciate the important work we do together to advance the industry. It is always special to be recognized by your colleagues and peers and this award is more special to me because of the memory of Bruce Pfieffer. I would especially like to thank Mrs. Kim Pfieffer for presenting the award.

“Thank you once again for this incredible recognition and for your support.”