HERSHEY, PA – The AACA Museum held their annual gala “Night at the Museum” last evening, and one of the highlights for bus enthusiasts was Randy Wilcox being named one of the AACA Museum’s “William H Smith Fellows.” This is a major award for “Exceptional and Significant Contributions for the furtherance of the AACA Museum.” Wilcox was notified in June the AACA Board of Directors would be presenting him with the award.
Wilcox is pictured here with his wife Sandi, new Bus Committee Chair/AACA Board Member Tom McCaughey, and recent “Volunteer of the Year” Tom Mozer. AACA Museum’s Executive Director Jeff Bliemeister presented the award.
Randy’s “day job” is as Senior Sales Executive for Irizar USA. Irizar is one of Europe’s premier bus manufacturers and has tasked Randy with helping them penetrate the North American market.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Bus Association and the Northwest Motorcoach Association. He brings the museum a vast quantity of bus industry relationships along with his technical and managerial skills.
In accepting the award, Randy commented that his relationship with AACA Museum began when, “In 2018, I attended the Bus Museum’s Annual Spring Fling. During that visit I was told the Golden Eagle had not moved in fifteen plus years. I love a challenge and after two volunteer workdays we had the Eagle running again.”
In the Fall of 2019, during the process of the merger between the Museum of Bus Transportation and the AACA Museum, Randy was appointed as one of the three members of museum’s bus committee.
During his tenure, he has led the team of volunteers, with the help of AACA Museum staff, in doing regular maintenance on the antique buses and the annex along with expanding “movie bus” activity. In addition, they have cataloged literally tons of parts for antique buses and created a library of hundreds of maintenance and parts manuals for historic buses. This ongoing effort has made AACA Museum a major resource for the informal group of individuals and organizations dedicated to preserving bus history.
Congratulations to Randy for this well-earned recognition.
