Sam Dominy, a retired auditor for the International Association of Machinists (IAM) passed away Oct. 29Â due to complications from COVID-19. He was in the intensive care unit at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield at the time of his death. He was 75.
Samuel David Dominy was raised in Springfield, Oregon. He graduated from Thurston High School in 1963. He was a Vietnam veteran, serving in the U.S. Air Force.
After the military he returned to Lane County and went to work for Weyerhaeuser in Cottage Grove, where he became a member of International Woodworkers of America (IWA) Local 246 in November 1965
He was active in the union, and served as a business representative and elected secretary-treasurer, and later directing business representative, of Local 246. He was president of the Lane County Labor Council for many years, and served on the Executive Board of the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Dominy also was active in politics. He represented Cottage Grove in District 44 in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1989 to 1994. He was a member of the labor caucus in the Legislature.
In 1994, the International Woodworkers of America, which was headquartered in Gladstone, Oregon, merged with the Machinists Union. In August 1999 the IAM hired Dominy as an international auditor. The job took him to Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He held that post until his retirement in December 2010.
In retirement he was active with the Colorado Alliance for Retired Americans, a nonpartisan organization of retired trade union members affiliated with the national AFL-CIO.
Dominy and his late wife Lela returned to Eugene in 2012. She died in August 2014.
Dominy remarried in July 2017. He is survived by his wife, Marcia; a daughter; a step-daughter; five step-sons; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
