Rushing Posthumously Honored With IMX Achievement Award

While Mike Rushing never would have sought honors for himself, those closest to him said his focus on “faith, family, friends and service” made him a deserving recipient of the IMX Achievement Award.

The award was presented posthumously to Rushing, founder of Rushing Marine Service LLC, Rushing, of Jackson, Mo., who died March 5 at the age of 79. His family accepted the award at the Inland Marine Expo, hosted by The Waterways Journal May 31-June 2 in Nashville, Tenn.

Tava Foret, president and co-founder with Rushing of the Towing Vessel Inspection Bureau (TVIB), spoke about Rushing’s legacy, including helping to create what became the Coast Guard’s Subchapter M regulations by which the industry currently operates to help ensure mariner and vessel safety.

There were 14 years and 7 months between the first conversations with Rushing about the need for improved safety and Subchapter M going into effect in July 2016, requiring certificates of inspection for commercial towing vessels, she said.

“Mike asked the tough questions, both of the Coast Guard and of industry,” Foret said of helping to create regulations that were both fair and effective.

In particular, she recalled speaking with him at an Inland Waterways Conference in 2007 about the realization that the brown-water industry was not an automatic fit for the Coast Guard’s classification societies, and that they needed something different.

“That’s where TVIB came from,” she said. “Mike’s mark on TVIB is huge.”

Foret talked about road trips, crossing the country from the Midwest to Washington, D.C., and back again, ultimately securing the support of five of the larger barge organizations, all of which are still with TVIB. She noted that Rushing was also adamant about TVIB being founded as a non-profit organization to educate, develop audit and survey tools and certify member auditors and surveyors to perform consistent, objective and independent audits and surveys of marine operators. He was the first chairman of the board and served on the board for 10 years.

Rushing’s influence shaped TVIB’s audit and survey checklists and training and certification programs.

“His fingerprints can be found throughout TVIB, and we fully expect that that will continue to live on,” Foret said.

She added that as a second-generation mariner, “Mike’s heart for the men and women on the water was at the core of everything he did professionally.”

Rushing’s son, Todd Rushing, accepted the award on his father’s behalf from Waterways Journal publisher Nelson Spencer Jr.

“It is a great honor to present this award to the Rushing family and to remember the legacy of someone who has contributed so much,” Spencer said in presenting it.

Rushing said he knew his father had touched a lot of people’s lives, but said he never realized how many until after his passing, when he began receiving cards, emails, phone calls, texts and written notes.

“The words mentor and teacher were used in almost every note,” he said.

Rushing said he grew up following his father around, and that his  father genuinely cared for people and always tried to find a way to help them.

“He said many times, life is about relationships, and, because of that philosophy, many of our customers and our employees are our best friends today,” Rushing said. “He was a legend in this industry, and there are few places you can go in this industry that didn’t know Mike Rushing.”

In his father’s more than 60-year career, he did every job on the river, from deckhand to company owner, he said.

“Regardless of what position he held, he always stood up for the mariner who stands a watch on a towboat,” Rushing said. “He fought to make it safer for them and make the industry the best that it could be. Often that came at a great personal cost, but he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. When he committed to doing something, he committed to doing it with all his being, and he never compromised what was right in his mind. Rushing Marine’s motto is ‘We Are Here To Help,’ and that’s because of his example.”

Rushing concluded by saying that the best tribute others could give to his father was by walking out the doors and doing something good for somebody else and expecting nothing for it.

Caption for photo: Todd Rushing speaks during ceremony honoring his father, the late Michael Rushing, at the Inland Marine Expo. (Photo by Frank McCormack)