The purpose of this award is to honor the recipient for service to the field of blacksmithing and to WRABA.

This person need not be the most talented blacksmith, but one who has demonstrated a willingness to serve in fulfillment of our purpose and objectives. These may include: training or establishing training programs for aspiring smiths; exposing the art of blacksmithing to the public through demonstrating at club events; promoting the work of the club, and general sharing of time and talents to support WRABA.

The 2024 recipient of the Tom Summers’s Blacksmith of the Year Award is Scott Tolle. He got his start blacksmithing by helping his grandfather on their farm. Later, in the SCA, he encountered a Master Smith from England and attended workshops with him for five years before eventually finding WRABA.

While a relatively new member, Scott has shown remarkable dedication to the club. During open forge, he has been there every week. He is usually the first to show up and the last to leave events. He was the communications officer in 2023-2024, has driven all the way to Toledo for a metal donation, and has often been there to pick up the slack. He also started the WRABA store competition in 2025. Side note: don’t forget that the next contest deadline is May 1st! Hinges and latches.

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Past Blacksmith of the Year Recipients

• Art Wolfe 1999
• Ralph Neumeister 2000
• Kim Thomas 2001
• Ken Pilarczyk 2002
• Bruce Woodward 2003
• Bob Temple 2004
• Ken Roby 2005
• Ken Tucker 2006
• Marc Yanko 2007
• Dick Mercurio 2008
• Marty Reisig 2009
• Roy Troutman 2010
• Jason Nass 2011
• Rocky Whitfield 2012
• Lou Molvin 2013
• James Hyde 2014
• Gary Barnhart 2015
• Grant Michener 2016
• William Fisher 2017
• John Klingler & Randy Barker 2018
• Michael Barton 2019
• Dale Bartholomew (Posthumously) 2020
• Walt Mullett 2021
• Tim Cunningham 2022
• Ike Tripp 2023