At the 31st annual Lehigh Valley Commercial and Industrial Real Estate awards breakfast, Dick Bus of ATAS International, Inc., received the Person of the Year award. It was presented to Bus on Oct. 25 at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, during a sold-out event attended by approximately 450 Lehigh Valley professionals. The event is a fundraiser for the neonatal intensive care units at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital and St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

The 2024 Project of the Year award was given to the new Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Coincidentally, Bus served on the Da Vinci board for several years, and ATAS supplied metal panels for its new facility; exterior and interior wall panels, as well as soffit panels. ATAS also sponsored manufacturing-focused exhibits within the new science center.

As president of ATAS, Bus has been a strong proponent of supporting the youth of the Lehigh Valley and introducing them to potential careers within manufacturing, architecture, engineering and construction. Those efforts include involvement in the Manufacturers Resource Center’s What’s So Cool About Manufacturing middle school video competition, the National Association of Manufacturers’ annual Manufacturing Day event, the Da Vinci Science Center’s Women in Science and Engineering Forum, and the Lehigh Valley Let’s Build Construction Camp for Girls. Bus has also been a dedicated supporter of the Boy Scouts of America. He led Troop 150 in Orefield, Pennsylvania, and saw several of those boys achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, including his son, Mark. “The most rewarding things I’ve done are not usually business-related,” Dick stated. “At the top of the list was being a Scout Master.” Dick was honored with the Good Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America Minsi Trails Council’s Trexler District in 2016.

Many of Dick’s family members, colleagues and friends attended the CIRE awards ceremony. He shared the company’s history and the fact that it started in 1963 by his father, Jacobus “Jack” Bus, in the basement of their home in Rochester, New York. Due to the company’s growth, they moved the business to the Lehigh Valley in the mid-1980s. Dick is very proud of the longevity of the company and its commitment to the Lehigh Valley community. “I owe my success to a lot of people throughout my life, starting with my parents, immigrants from Holland who knew nothing about the construction or manufacturing industries but had the nerve to start a business to feed eight kids,” Dick stated.

With four manufacturing facilities for ATAS and two facilities for its affiliate company, BRIGHTSMITH Coaters, the Bus family is looking forward to continued growth, innovation and support of the communities in which it operates.