Today in Labor History Oct 25 Paul Wellstone, his wife, Sheila, and their daughter Marcia killed

[Omaha Steve]

October 25

25,000 silk dye workers strike in Paterson, NJ - 1934

In what becomes known as the Great Hawaiian Dock Strike, a six-month struggle to win wage parity with mainland dock workers ends in victory - 1949

October 25, 1990 - Workers were locked out at the New York Daily News, part of an effort to bust the unions at the newspaper.

October 25, 1995 - In the first contested elections in the history of the AFL-CIO, a slate led by Service Employees President John Sweeney was elected at the national AFL-CIO convention in New York City. Mine Workers President Richard Trumka became AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and Linda Chavez-Thompson of AFSCME filled the newly created position of executive vice president.

October 25, 2002 - Minnesota's "labor senator," Paul Wellstone, his wife, Sheila, and their daughter Marcia, along wtih three campaign workers and two pilots, were killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota. The tragedy occurred just days before Wellstone was set to be elected to a third term in the U.S. Senate.



Labor history found here: http://www.unionist.com/today-in-labor-history & here: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_10_25_2009

[hamerfan]

1. R.I.P. Paul

He was a good'un!

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. He went to my High School

my brother wrestled on the same team. Wellstone was the captain of the team.

NPR's Peter Overby had called to remind me that Wellstone had grown up in Arlington and graduated from Yorktown High School.

Retired Yorktown teacher, and good friend, Sarah Jane Knight called me as soon as the column appeared to confirm this and add to the Wellstone Arlington "leg end."

Sarah Jane remembered Wellstone from his student days and kept up with him throughout his political career, as did other Arlingtonians.

The future senator from Minnesota spent his first three high school years at Arlington's Wakefield High School while Yorktown was being built. (Yorktown High School had pre viously been Yorktown Elementary School when the school board decided that another high school was needed in North Arlington.) He graduated from Yorktown in 1962, along with his high school sweetheart Sheila Ison, who soon became Mrs. Paul Wellstone when they were nineteen years old. Sheila died with the Senator in the plane crash.

The 1962 Yorktown yearbook. shows them together in cap and gown "looking very loving" according to Sarah Jane.

Much has been made of the senator's feistiness as a wrestler. He was, in fact, captain of the Yorktown wrestling team, Yorktown's Athlete of the Year, a varsity cross country runner and member of the Monogram Club. Pretty good for someone who was also a major intellectual, political science Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, and a professor at Carlton College in Minnesota.

Max Smith, Wellstone's gov ernment teacher, remembers him well. The senator invited Max to "shadow" him for an entire day in the Senate. Wellstone set a fast pace. He was impatient with elevators, so he (and Max) ran up and down the stairs. It was a "marvelous day" for Smith, who was introduced by Wellstone as the person who got him interested in government.

Wellstone's English teacher, Gerry Shelton, told me that Wellstone was an outstanding person, a "giant in , personality, intelligence, and concern for oth ers" even as a high school student. What impressed Shelton (as it would any teacher) was that his student was truly interested in what he was teaching.

Gerry remembers that when he finished his lectures on Emerson and Thoreau, Wellstone came to him and said, "You know, I think I have become a transcendentalist." This is an experience that makes it worth being a teacher.

This is a story of a precocious Arlington kid who went on to make a difference in the world. It is also, however, a tale about quality teachers and quality education that have been a hallmark of the Arlington educational system. And it is a story about community.

http://www.yorktownalums.org/memoriam/wellstone_paul_and_shiela-yhs62.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. You should put this post in GD

BTW..... I just realized I had the same english and civics teacher as Wellstone

Both were amazing teachers.

[joeycola]

4. I was living in MN at that time. I recall it vividly.

[annabanana]

5. One of the best men that the Senate ever saw. . n/t

[dcsmart]

6. Thanks for posting this K & R

[clear eye]

7. Still missing him

from the news and when working for a reform. Thanks for remembering to honor him.