Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

The IAM, and more specifically, the IAM’s Communications Department suffered a loss this past weekend. Retired Communications Representative Dave Stack passed away at 80 years old.

Brother Stack, who retired in 2004, spent 21 years with the IAM. Dave was a newspaper man, a great trade unionist who also had printer’s ink running through his veins. Dave had a profound effect on so many communicators within our union, as he was one of the instructors in the Communication Department’s Editor’s classes at the Winpisinger Center.

I was one of those students in the mid-90s. Dave had a “loveable curmudgeon” attitude, and he could be funny and crotchety at the same time. While a gifted writer, he was tough to please. His critique of your work might be biting, but it showed you the path to becoming a better writer.

As a young (well, relatively young) Local and District Lodge newsletter editor, enduring his tough assessments of my writing, I’ll never forget when he handed one back to me and said, simply, “damn fine work.” It honestly was a high point of my labor career.

While recently in ill health, Dave kept in touch with our department, and we spoke several times in the last year and a half.

I’m sure many of those who worked with and learned from Brother Stack will think of the difference he made for our union and the lives he touched as a teacher, a coworker and as a chronicler of our proud union.

Goodbye old friend.

 

Bob Wood
Director of Communications

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