Harold Coker Inducted into the Tire Industry Association Hall of Fame

The Tire Industry Association has named three inductees to its Hall of Fame in 2014 and three recipients of the Ed Wagner Industry Leadership Award. This year�s Hall of Fame honorees are Harold Coker, founder of Coker Tire Co., Charles Cornell, the late founder of Tech International, and Juanita Purcell, executive vice president of Purcell Tire & Rubber Co. The recipients of the Ed Wagner Industry Leadership Award are Jim Smith, editor of Tire Review, Mary Sikora, publisher/editor of Scrap Tire News, and Tom Wright Sr., owner of Wright Tire Service. Harold Coker graduated from Tennessee Tech in 1951 with a degree in chemistry. He began his career in the tire industry with B.F. Goodrich, started Coker Tire Co. in 1958 in Athens, Tenn., and moved to Chattanooga in 1961. The company is now the largest supplier for collector car tires in the world. Harold retired from active participation in Coker Tire in 2004 but serves as chairman of the board emeritus. In 1985, he served as president of the National Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association (NTDRA) where he led the effort to get NTDRA into the government affairs arena and lobbied for bills like voluntary tire registration. He was instrumental in starting and raising money for the association�s political action committee and spoke about the importance of government affairs to state associations nationwide. Harold was chairman of the committee to establish Money Express, a credit card exclusively for tire dealers nationwide. He also ran for Congress in 1988.