J. Vic Green, a veteran of more than five decades in the natural stone industry, has been awarded the 2007 Migliore Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Marble Institute of America (MIA).

Green accepted the award at the annual MIA Awards Luncheon on October 19, 2007, while in attendance at StonExpo, the MIA-sponsored stone industry trade show.

For Green, the award caps a 50-year stone industry career. He started VIC International in 1978 with a $500 bank loan. It is now one of the largest independently owned companies serving the stone industry.

Green’s many achievements include pioneering a host of the “standards” used today in the stone industry. He was instrumental in establishing StonExpo as a major tradeshow, and he served as the president of its board of directors for two terms. He has been a member of MIA for more than two decades and currently serves on its board. He has also served on the board of the Building Stone Institute.

Green published the first stone industry newspaper and catalog, pioneered the introduction and technical development of natural stone “after care,” and created a multi-million dollar business. Additionally, he designed and developed the original pre-shaped diamond tooling for use on routers. Among his many other firsts is the design and development of a manual bowl hole machine, design of the original jobsite rail saw to be sold in the U.S. and introduction of the first manual edge profiling system.

Green is the fifth recipient of the Migliore Award, established in honor of the late Vincent R. Migliore, MIA’s long-time technical director. Migliore received the award posthumously in 2003. The 2004 award went to Joe Kapcheck of J. Kapcheck and Co. Malcolm Cohen of Domestic Marble and Miller Druck Specialty Contracting received the award in 2005, and Bernard Polak of Denver Marble Co. received the award last year.