Let me say this about that

May 2, 2003

R.C. HENARIE, 92, a former secretary-treasurer of Multnomah Typographical Union (MTU) No. 58, has been voted into Labor's Hall of Fame by the sponsoring Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Council. The Retirees Council is affiliated with the Portland-based Northwest Oregon Labor Council.

Henarie joined the International Typographical Union (ITU) in San Antonio, Texas, in 1930 when he was 19. He moved to Portland in 1945 and was elected Local 58's secretary-treasurer in 1958. He retired in 1985. For eight years prior to his election to the full-time post, he held the office of MTU #58's Chapel chairman at the Portland Oregonian newspaper where he'd worked since 1945. Chapel is a printing trades' term for bargaining unit.

IN THE COMPOSING ROOM of the Oregonian back in the days of hot lead type, Henarie was one of the make-up men who put together the newspaper's pages, following a page outline or "dummy" prepared by a news editor, and working with a make-up editor nearby who authorized changes when needed.

Henarie was born on Feb. 2, 1911 in San Antonio. His parents gave him the initials R.C. This was not an uncommon practice in Texas. His father was a cabinet-maker and a carpenter who was a staunch member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. He died when R.C. was 14. To help his widowed mother with the expense of maintaining a family of three daughters and two sons, R.C. quit school to work full-time delivering groceries on his bicycle which he'd been doing part-time. AT AGE 19, Henarie took a beginner's job as a "galley boy" in the composing room of the San Antonio Express and News, which were morning and evening newspapers published by the same company. He quickly became an apprentice printer and a member of the ITU. He worked there until 1945 as a make-up man and an operator of Monotype and Linotype typesetting machines. That same year he wound up in Portland after "roaming around" for a while. The next year he married a Portland woman, Frances Johnson, who worked at the Bank of California.

The five-and-a-half-year-strike against the Oregonian and Oregon Journal started the year after Henarie was elected secretary-treasurer of the Printers Union. The strike began Nov. 10, 1959 with Stereotypers Local 49 as the first striking union. Local 58 members considered themselves locked-out because the newspapers had scabs on hand to take their jobs.

After the nearly a dozen unions whose 850 members were involved in the strike-lockout started the Portland Reporter tabloid newspaper, R.C.'s wife, Mrs. Frances Henarie, took a job as executive secretary to the strikers who held the top executive posts at the Reporter. After the strike-born newspaper ceased publishing on Sept. 30, 1964, Mrs. Henarie returned to a job at the bank. However, she died four years later of cancer.

For many years, Henarie attended conventions of the ITU and meetings of the Oregon Typographical Conference. He also went to Oregon AFL-CIO conventions and meetings of the old Multnomah County Labor Council. For more than a decade he served as a member of the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Company Board of Directors. The non-profit company publishes the Northwest Labor Press.

R.C. AND FRANCES HENARIE had a son and a daughter. Robert L. Henarie, a certified public accountant, is married to the former Barbara Webb, whose father, Robert D. Webb, was a striking Newspaper Guild member who was the Reporter's publisher. They live in Portland. R.C.'s daughter, Mary Frances Henarie, teaches school in San Diego and is married to a former FBI agent. R.C. also has a son, Ronald, by an earlier marriage, who is a retired police officer living in San Antonio. R.C. is the oldest of five generations of Henaries, including his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

THE ITU merged with the Communications Workers of America in 1987. Last year Portland CWA Local 7901 presented Henarie with a 70-year membership pin at a ceremony attended by a number of retired printers. He's a member of the Elks Lodge in San Antonio. Henarie suffered a broken hip in a fall five years ago and has since needed a walker to get around. However, he still drives, which enables him to get to occasional lunches with other retired printers.

EMORY F. VIA, a former director of the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) at the University of Oregon, died of cancer on April 15 in Eugene. He was 78. Via was LERC's second director and served from 1978 to 1988.

Via was born Jan. 11, 1925 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Emory University in Atlanta, and a master's degree and a doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago. In 1952 he married Margaret Johnson, an artist, who survives him.

HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER was spent as a labor educator with roots in the civil rights movement.

"Emory was a rare white Southerner, working to bring racially integrated worker education to Southern unions," said two University of Oregon colleagues, Steve Deutsch and Marcus Widenor. They said Via spent his early years as a labor education instructor in various capacities in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago. From 1959-68 he was a professor of labor education at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. From 1968-76 Via worked for the Southern Regional Council in Atlanta in several leadership posts. He was a visiting professor at Georgia State University from 1976-78.

VIA SPENT the next 10 years as director of LERC at Eugene. From 1984-86 he also served as national president of the University and College Labor Education Association. After he retired, Via continued his activities in labor-management partnerships and other labor issues, Deutsch and Widenor reported. They said he was president of the Labor in Retirement organization in Eugene and that "he enjoyed telling stories and jokes, watching birds, visiting with friends and family, and helping his wife in her career as a visual artist."

In addition to his wife, Via is survived by their son, Wali David Via, of Noti, Oregon, and two granddaughters, Kachina and Noora Via, also of Noti; and two brothers, Richard Via, of Kailua, Hawaii, and Bernard Via, of Roanoke, Virginia.

A MEMORIAL SERVICE will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at Unity of the Valley Church, 39th and Hilyard, in Eugene.

HANNELORE (LORI) GYDEN of Portland, a 15-year member of School Employees Local 140, died April 15, at age 44. A celebration of life memorial service was scheduled May 1 at Cheatham Hall at the World Forestry Center, 4033 SW Canyon Rd.

She was a custodian for 15 years for the Portland Public Schools, most recently at Rose City Park Elementary School. She left in August of 2002 due to a School Board decision to contract out custodial services. "She will be missed by those who knew her," said her union.

She was born as Hannelore Hauf on Dec. 23, 1958 in Ouhm, Germany.

She was a member of the National Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association and also enjoyed hiking, tennis, pool, and other activities, said her friend Jayson J. Stone.

Family members in Germany survive her. She is also survived by "the countless friends and people whose lives have been touched and forever changed as a result of knowing her," said Stone.

CORRECTION: Halfway through the obituary of William Harry (Bud) Barnes of Asbestos Workers Local 36 in the April l8 Labor Press, a sentence said: "In 1951 he joined Local 51 as an apprentice." It should have said Local 36. Thanks to Pat Quigley of Local 36, who spotted it.