ASTM International honored two fastener industry veterans with top awards. 

Bill King, recently retired technical sales manager at Brighton Best International, won the 2026 Award of Merit for his contributions to its fasteners committee (F16). ASTM recognized him for his thorough and diplomatic leadership style, attention to detail, and for instilling efficiency as a core value of committee F16. 

An ASTM International member since 1995, King has previously been honored by the committee with the Fred F. Weingruber Award (2007).

King’s career focus has been fastener quality, quality management, testing, lab accreditation and management, and applications engineering. Prior to 1994, King served in various roles in quality assurance for aerospace and defense companies. In addition to ASTM, he has contributed to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and the British Standards Institution fastener committees.

He began his fastener industry career in 1987 with Shur-Lok Corp. He also worked for Asco Aerospace Products, Hi-Shear Technology Corp., Porteous Fastener Company, and Fastenal Co.