Member Awardee

Richard S. Weeks (known as Rich) was born in Passaic, New Jersey on March 23, 1953. Upon graduating from high school, Rich began his career in the construction industry, working in the office of what was then known as Weeks Stevedoring Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

While pursuing his college and graduate degrees (he earned a bachelors degree from Johns Hopkins University; a masters degree from the Nitze School of Advanced International studies; and an MBA from Harvard Business School), he worked for Weeks Stevedoring on a broad variety of jobs on the waterfront – from deckhand to stevedoring superintendent. After completing his MBA in 1977, Rich joined Weeks Stevedoring full-time. At the time, the company was active in the stevedoring, barging and clamshell dredging businesses in the New York Harbor area, with annual sales of approximately $6 Mil.

Over the succeeding thirty years, Weeks Stevedoring, Inc., subsequently renamed Weeks Marine, Inc., has grown to become the largest marine contractor in the United States, with an annual volume of over $500 Mil. Rich Weeks played a pivotal role in this growth. Building on existing strong relationships, frequently as a subcontractor or supplier of cranes and barges, Weeks expanded into marine construction in the 1980’s. The Staten Island Homeport, in JV with Yonkers Contracting, was an early notable project, followed later by large joint ventures with Skanska (FDR Drive Bypass) and Kiewit (Willis Avenue Bridge).

The company also moved into the Caribbean, performing large design-build contracts in Venezuela, Trinidad and elsewhere. With the tragedy of 9/11, all Weeks divisions came together to design, build and operate all debris load-out and transport facilities. Most recently, Weeks designed and constructed four large LNG projects (one in Canada, with Kiewit and Sandwell, and two in the Gulf); and a 3750’ long container facility in Portsmouth, Virginia. Hawaiian subsidiary Healy Tibbits has led Weeks to new work in the far Pacific. The purchases and successful integration into Weeks of American Dredging in 1993, and the dredging operations of T.L. James in 1993, brought Weeks a position of leadership in the domestic dredging industry.

Among other honors, Rich is a Past President of the Moles and Past President of the Dredging Contractors of America.

Rich and his wife, Candace, have three children, Alexandra, Katherine and Richard Matthew, and live in New Vernon, New Jersey, where he is active in the Presbyterian Church of New Vernon, having served as an elder on session.