www.mrca.org  —  Midwest Roofer
30
INDUSTRY NEWS
During the 2026 International Roofing Expo® in Las Vegas, 
NRCA announced Dennis Runyan, former owner of Dryspace 
Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as the recipient of the John 
Bradford Volunteer Award. Runyan received the award Jan. 
21 during NRCA’s Industry Awards and Reception.
The John Bradford Volunteer Award is presented to an 
individual in the roofing industry who has consistently 
demonstrated outstanding acts of volunteerism. Volunteerism 
takes many forms—some demonstrated locally and others 
nationally, such as the volunteer work performed at NRCA. 
Runyan started working in construction while attending 
college at the University of Iowa. Before going to class each 
day, he worked mornings as a carpenter, mason, plumber 
or other construction-related job he found on the school’s 
message board. After discovering he was not going to be 
accepted into the university’s writers’ workshop, Runyan left 
school to join the construction industry full-time at Iowa Falls 
Roofing Company, Cedar Rapids, as a laborer. He worked 
his way up from estimator and project manager to general 
manager in 1987. Two years later, Runyan purchased the 
assets of the roofing company and renamed it DrySpace.
During his nearly 60 years in the roofing industry, Runyan has 
generously volunteered his time. He served on the board of 
the Iowa Roofing Contractors Association for several years 
and was elected president in 1991. Runyan also served on 
the board of the Midwest Roofing Contractors Association for 
16 years and was elected president in 2005. He served in 
various roles in both organizations, but his passion has always 
been on the technical side of things. 
In addition to serving on MRCA’s Technical and Research 
Committee for 13 years, he chaired the initial CERTA 
committee, which was responsible for the program’s 
paperwork. More than 20 years later, Runyan continues to 
be involved and helped with the most recent revisions. In 
recognition for his outstanding service to MRCA and the 
roofing industry, in 2010, MRCA awarded Runyan its highest 
honor—the James Q. McCawley award.
Runyan has served on several NRCA technical committees, 
including the NRCA/MRCA CERTA Task Force and Technical 
Operations Committee. He often took on additional work 
from the various task forces he served on, such as Quality 
Control Guidelines and Vegetative Roof Manual, and served 
as chair of the Technical Operations Committee twice. 
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