IN MEMORIAM: CWA Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus James Booe; Harry Kranz, DOL, UAW, CIO

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus James Booe: Retired CWA Secretary-Treasurer James B. Booe (r), who helped guide CWA for nearly 45 years, died July 9. He was 83. Booe retired as secretary-treasurer in 1992 after having served CWA as secretary-treasurer and executive vice president. Booe joined CWA staff in 1960 as a District 9 CWA representative, and became CWA's Northern California director in 1965. In 1968 he was named assistant to the district vice president, and was elected district vice president in 1970. Booe moved to Washington, D.C., in 1976 to serve as assistant to CWA President Glenn Watts, and was elected executive vice president in 1980. As head of CWA's governmental affairs program, he chaired CWA's political action fund, building the program into a force in American politics. During the breakup of the Bell System, Booe fought to protect the pension portability of the thousands of CWA members affected by AT&T's divestiture. He was elected secretary-treasurer in 1985. Click here for his obituaries on the CWA website and in The Washington Post. Harry Kranz, DOL, UAW, CIO: Harry Kranz, 86, a Labor Department program administrator from 1963 to 1981, died July 11. Dr. Kranz spent much of his Labor Department career in manpower, development and training. He had earlier been a staff member with the new Peace Corps and administrative assistant in Detroit to Walter Reuther, president of United Automobile Workers union. He spent much of his early career working in New Jersey for the Congress of Industrial Organizations. In retirement, he taught labor history and collective bargaining at American and the University of Maryland. His memberships included the National Capital Area Union Retirees Club.
– Excerpted from The Washington Post.