LAUREL, Md. — Nominations open Wednesday (April 1) for the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute’s (DLI) 2026 Hall of Fame Award, which recognizes individuals whose leadership and service have strengthened the drycleaning and laundry industry. 

All industry professionals are invited to submit a nomination, DLI says, adding that membership is not required to nominate a candidate or to be selected.

Nominations will be accepted through May 15 via a form available at DLIonline.org/HoF.

DLI’s Board of Directors will review applications, and recipients will be announced to the industry by mid-September. Applications have a three-year shelf life, DLI states, meaning any nomination filed this year may be considered for up to three years. 

Candidates include industry pioneers, exceptional business leaders and community advocates. To be eligible for nomination, they must have worked a minimum of 10 years in the drycleaning and laundry industry.

“Professional drycleaning and laundry operators from all over the world contribute to the betterment of our industry every day,” says DLI CEO Mary Scalco. “Our goal with the Hall of Fame is to recognize contributions made by any professional in our industry who has made a positive impact and honor them as examples for other members of the industry. All cleaning professionals, regardless of membership, are welcome to nominate industry professionals they see as inspirational for this award.”

“The DLI Board of Directors thought of people in our industry who helped us grow personally and professionally and how we might honor them,” says Norman Way of Puritan Cleaners, District 2 director on the DLI Board. “We know others feel the same, and the DLI Hall of Fame Award seems like the perfect way to commend and recognize these impactful leaders who left a lasting effect on us all.”

“DLI’s Hall of Fame award is just one of many aspects that make our industry great,” says Mark Albrecht of The Route Pros. “We all have so many true mentors and drycleaning superheroes. This award will ensure that those people’s legacies are at the forefront of so many of our minds as we move into the future.”

To date, these 15 industry legends have received the DLI Hall of Fame Award: 

• Jim Barry, GreenEarth Cleaning
• Walter “Buster” Bell, Bell Laundry and Cleaners, Spartanburg, S.C.
• Milt Chortkoff, Milt & Edie’s Drycleaning & Tailoring Center, Burbank, Calif.
• Barney Deden, retired drycleaner in Omaha, Neb.
• James Douglas, GreenEarth Cleaning
• Chris Edwards, A Cleaner World, High Point, N.C.
• Dan Eisen, industry educator
• Don Fawcett, Dependable Cleaners, Quincy, Mass.
• Stan Golomb, Founder of The Golomb Group, Chicago
• Jeffrey Miller, Miller’s Fine Drycleaning, Hendersonville, N.C.
• Michael Nesbit, MW Cleaners and DLI past president
• James Peuster, The Route Pros
• William Joseph “Dixie” Stoddard, inventor of Stoddard solvent
• Sid Tuchman, Tuchman Training Systems, San Francisco
• Jane Zellers, industry educator