Bill Regan has retired as apprenticeship coordinator for the Painters & Tapers Regional Training Center.
Regan, 62, has been the coordinator since 2002, where he has trained thousands of men and women to be skilled painters, drywall finishers, and reliable workers.
“A good portion of my job was to try to give people a sense of accomplishment,” he said.
Some promising apprentices never pan out, he said, while others that you thought would never make it turn out to be stellar.
A graduate of Clackamas High School, Regan joined Painters Local 10 in 1973. He was attending community college to get into the electronics and telecommunications field when he realized he didn’t like being inside all the time.
He knew some guys from a neighborhood tavern he frequented in Northwest Portland who were bridge painters.
“They worked eight to nine months a year and made lots of money,” he said. “That sounded pretty good to me.”
Regan worked both in commercial and industrial painting during a time when there were more than 100 union shops. He was active in the union, and in 1992 was elected financial secretary. In that position, Regan was a trustee on both the Painters and Drywall Finishers joint apprenticeship training committees. In those days, the committees leased a building in Northeast Portland to house their training center.
Just a few years prior, in the late 1980s, a poor economy and the rise of double-breasted shops (contractors who bid work both union and nonunion), caused membership to tumble. It got so bad that the training program was forced to shut down. It re-opened a few years later, and thrived in the boom years of the 1990s.
The 100th anniversary booklet of Painters Local 10 credits financial secretary Regan and business rep John Kirkpatrick for overseeing “our miraculous recovery.”
As apprenticeship coordinator, Regan oversaw a staff of one full time instructor, four part-time instructors, and an office manager. He was involved in the formation of the Painters Union Management Partnership (PUMP) in 2004 and the accompanying Safety Training Awards Recognitions (STAR) program, which gives bonuses to painters who enroll in continuing education classes.
Regan was active with the apprenticeship coordinators group, where coordinators from all crafts meet regularly to share ideas about training, recruitment, and to discuss other issues and concerns.
Regan also played a large role in the purchase of the current training center.
“The committees had talked for years about buying a building,” Regan said. “But it never materialized.”
That changed following the Great Recession of 2008. With the economy in recovery mode and the real estate market still soft, the Painters JATC decided the time was right to buy a building.
“We spent a couple of years looking at commercial property,” Regan said. In 2012, a real estate agent showed them a building at 135th and NE Whitaker—just a few blocks from where they were renting space. They bought the building.
Regan said training definitely has changed over the years. Today there are virtual painting machines, and paint is mixed by computers. “Six-dollar-a-gallon paint now costs $600 a gallon,” he said jokingly.
In retirement Regan will spend more time with his wife Carole, and work on his boat and a vintage Austin Healy.
