In Memoriam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

A union rep for International Woodworkers of America and IAM, he led the Lane County Labor Council and served in the Oregon Legislature.