In Memoriam

Frank Jackson, 1937-2024

The Eugene fire fighter and Lane County Central Labor Council leader helped pass Oregon’s public worker union law.

Don McKinnon, 1944-2023

Former Plasterers Local 82 business manager Don McKinnon died Dec. 15 at the age of 79. McKinnon was business manager from 1984 to 2022.

Noel E. Johnson, 1934-2023

He joined Bakers Local 114 in 1952, and led the union as executive secretary-treasurer for a decade before his retirement in 1992.

Steve Hillesland 1947-2023

The retired union representative of Machinists District Lodge 24 died May 2 at the Portland VA Medical Center at the age of 76. 

Aida Aranda, 1962-2023

Training center director Aida Aranda, who died Feb. 27, was a proud Laborer and a dedicated advocate for apprenticeship.

Gary Gillespie, 1951-2022

Gillespie, a former president of Oregon AFSCME, served Oregon working people and Eugene residents for more than three decades.

Ralph Groener, 1941-2022

Ralph Groener, a lobbyist for AFSCME for 28 years, had a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

Gay Lincoln 1940-2022

Gay Lincoln, a retired union machinist who was long active in the civic life of Southwest Washington, died April 30 at age 82.

Victor Weekes 1945-2022

Victor T. Weekes Sr., a Nabisco worker and longtime officer of Bakers Local 364, died May 7 of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.

Ross Rieder, 1940-2021

A retired AFT-Washington leader, he was active for decades promoting labor history and led the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association.

Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, dies at 72

Trumka was the fifth person to serve as president since the AFL-CIO was formed in 1955, and was the first AFL-CIO president to die in office.

Michael D. Smith, 1953-2021

A business representative of Sheet Metal Workers Local 16, he was involved in the lengthy CleanPak strike that began in 1998.

Newell W. “Tim” Joy, 1925-2021

As business representative at IBEW Local 48, Joy helped found the union's Edison pension trust in 1969. He was 95. 

Clarence Noon, 1939-2021

Noon was a business rep for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 55 and later Council 5.

Bill Belanger, 1942-2021

A former apprenticeship coordinator, president, and business agent of Bricklayers Local 1, he remained active in the union to the end.

Burton David White, 1930-2021

After a decade and a half at Oregon and California nurses unions, he spent most of his career mediating and arbitrating labor disagreements.

Bill Miller, Jr., 1948-2021

Miller was business manager of Portland-based IBEW Local 125 when the Enron scandal robbed PGE lineman of retirement savings.

John Sweeney, 1934-2021

Former national AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, who led an era of transformative change in America’s labor movement, died Feb. 1 at age 86.

Anne Feeney, 1951-2021

One of labor's best-loved folk singer-songwriters, who performed on countless strike picket lines, died Feb. 3 of COVID-19.

Wally Feist, 1949-2020

A former financial secretary-treasurer and briefly president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, he worked at TriMet from 1977 to 2011.