The officers are saddened to report the death of former Director of the Research and Technical Services Department Douglas Fisher on May 10. He was 78.

The IBEW came to rely on Brother Fisher's ability to bring the transformational power of new information technologies to the International Office in the 1990s. He first saw the power of computing when he automated Memphis, Tenn., Local 474's office system and oversaw 44% membership growth following the change.

At the International Office he became a tireless evangelist for the potential of new technology to help the membership. He found faster, cheaper ways to get information from the I.O. to members and representatives in the field. And he was an enthusiastic promoter of the value of continuing education for himself, his staff and the membership of the IBEW.

Brother Fisher was born in Memphis, the nephew of George Peek, former Business Manager of Local 474. After high school he served from 1959-67 as a security policeman in the U.S. Air Force. Following an honorable discharge, he was initiated into Local 474 in 1968, beginning a 36-year career in the Brotherhood.

Within three years of initiation, Fisher became vice president of the local, holding positions of recording secretary and executive board member before serving as business manager from 1984-92.

Brother Fisher's service to organized labor was not limited to his local. He was press secretary of the Memphis AFL-CIO and later served on its executive board as well as on the Memphis Building Trades Council.

In 1992, then-International President J.J. Barry appointed Fisher an international representative in the Research and Economics Department. Three years later he was transferred to the Construction and Maintenance Department.

Barry then appointed Fisher director of the renamed Research and Technical Services Department after consolidating corporate affairs, employee benefits, education and the IBEW library under its control.

As Brother Fisher rose through the IBEW ranks he went back to school, earning first a bachelor's degree in labor studies from Antioch University via the George Meany Center for Labor Studies and then a masters degree in labor and policy studies from Empire State University.

What made him effective wasn't just that he understood technology. He was an expert on how people understood information and found tools to get it to them the way that suited them best. For example, he developed a chart with the Political/Legislative Department that showed how the nation had fared since 1968 under different presidents in employment, federal deficits and imbalance in trade.

It crystallized for people with facts something they may have only felt. He called it "Just the Facts" and, over the years, the IBEW distributed more than a million copies of the chart.

But you wouldn't have known it just by looking at him, said Research Director Jim Voye.

"He was the physically toughest director of research this or any other union has had," he said. "And he was committed to education, for himself, his staff and the IBEW and he fought for good ideas wherever they came from."

Voye said that Fisher was as responsible as anyone for moving the IBEW to take advantage of the tools created by the information technology revolution of the late '90s.

Fisher retired back to his native Tennessee in 2004 where he was an award-winning gardener and woodturner.

Fisher is survived by his wife of 44 years, Gloria; daughter Catherine and sons William, a member of Pueblo, Colo., Local 12; Christopher and Robert, members of Local 474 and Glenn, a vice president at Oak Ridge, Tenn., Local 270.

On behalf of the IBEW's members and staff, the officers offer our deepest sympathies to Brother Fisher's family.

Retired Seventh District International Representative Max R. Ladusch died on May 20. He was 86.

Ladusch was born Aug. 7, 1933, in Austin, Texas, and he lived there his entire life. After graduating from Austin High School in 1953, Ladusch was initiated into his hometown Local 520, but he was also drafted into a two-year stint with the U.S. Army. He completed his apprenticeship after being honorably discharged.

Immediately active in his local, Ladusch volunteered his services for just about every available committee over the years. He went on to serve as Local 520's vice president from 1960-62. That was followed by two separate terms as president: from 1962-64 and again from 1966-70, before he began a nine-year run as business manager. He also served as an instructor for Local 520's joint apprenticeship training center.

Ladusch was active outside of the IBEW, too, serving as vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO from 1972-79, as well as terms as vice president of the Texas State Association of Electrical Workers, secretary of the Austin Building and Construction Trades Council and as a member of Austin's Electric Board.

In 1979, then-International President Charles Pillard appointed Brother Ladusch to serve as an international representative for the union's Seventh District, which covers members in Texas as well as Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Ralph Merriweather, a fellow member of Local 520 and Seventh District international representative, had known Ladusch since 1972, when Merriweather was still working as a forklift operator at Wide Lite, an IBEW-represented plant that made outdoor lighting fixtures.

"Max was directly responsible for my career in the electrical industry," Merriweather said. "He was one of those guys who was a true union guy. Our conversations would always be about the IBEW."

Merriweather recalled how Ladusch, Local 520's business manager at the time, asked him to go through an IBEW apprenticeship, explaining that the government was pressuring the local to increase membership of persons of color.

"When you say you want me, it had better have nothing to do with color or government," Merriweather said, declining Ladusch's invitation. "I think he was startled. He had never heard people come back to the business manager that way."

But Ladusch understood Merriweather's point, and he spent the next three years learning from that conversation and convincing his new friend to join the IBEW and later to become an organizer.

"He was an old-school union type of man, hard core. That's just the way we came up," said Merriweather. Even in retirement, "he would always call and see how I was doing. He is going to be uniquely missed."

"He would start out every conversation with a joke," said retired Seventh District International Vice President Orville Tate, who recalled how Ladusch had been the protégé of Local 520 brother Marcus Loftis, who eventually served at the International Office in Washington as Pillard's executive assistant.

And although Ladusch mainly serviced locals in the Lone Star State, Tate said, "he fit in everywhere," including a short run working closely with a Kansas local.

Ladusch had a passion for politics, Tate said, often describing himself as a "yellow dog Democrat," voting a straight blue ticket in just about every election.

"When Ann Richards and Jim Mattox ran for the Democratic nomination for governor of Texas in 1990, Max supported Ann," Tate said. "He fought tooth and nail to get her elected." Richards went on to win both the nomination and the governorship. Ladusch also was a vocal supporter of long-serving Rep. Lloyd Doggett, whose district includes Austin.

Although Ladusch retired from the IBEW in 1997, he remained active, spending time with his family, going to Local 520 get-togethers and attending functions as a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His many friends also recalled how much he enjoyed his down time swimming and hunting.

The officers and membership extend their deepest condolences to Ladusch's wife of 56 years, Marsha, and to their two children and five grandchildren.

Retired First District International Representative James Wolfgang, who led the formation of Ottawa Local 2228 and was an organizer on many other successful drives involving federal employees in Canada, died at his home in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on May 14. He was 87.

Brother Wolfgang retired in 1985 due to a battle with multiple sclerosis, but it didn't slow him down much. He was long active in the MS Society of Canada.

Wolfgang's work inspired the First District to make the MS Society its official national charity, a move that is believed to have made the IBEW the first union in Canada to adopt a charity on a national basis. It has held an annual golf tournament since 1989 to raise money in the fight against multiple sclerosis and held several other fundraisers.

"He was just one of the smartest men I've ever met," said Laird Cronk, president of the British Columbia Federation of Labour and a former First District international representative. "He had a mind for facts and figures like no one else did and he had a way of using them at just the right time."

Brother Wolfgang was an electrician and became a member of Victoria, British Columbia, Local 230 in 1952, where he was employed by the federal government at the Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard in Victoria. There, he helped organize and was elected the first president of the West Dockyard Trades and Labour Council. The council is a coalition of all unions that represent employees working at the dockyard, which is the permanent western dock of the Canadian Royal Navy.

That caught the eye of then-First District Vice President William Ladyman, who brought Wolfgang on staff as an international representative. He was tasked with organizing electrical technicians employed by the federal public service, who were granted collective bargaining rights along with other federal employees when the Public Service Staff Relations Act went into effect in 1967.

Despite some initial resistance from governmental leaders who were concerned that the IBEW was an international union, workers accepted it as the bargaining representative. Local 2228 was chartered in October of that year.

But the fight was far from over. Local 2228 continued to face resistance for several years and had difficulty in its early contract negotiations. Because of his and others' efforts, today it represents about 1,900 electronic technicians. It is chartered in the nation's capital but its members live across Canada and a handful are employed in Canadian embassies around the world.

"Jim Wolfgang was the salt of the earth," Local 2228 Business Manager Paul Cameron said. "He embodied what the IBEW was all about. Without his tenacity, [Local 2228] wouldn't exist. It was really tough going back in the days of the transition but he led us through that."

Des Davidge, who was the British Columbia representative on the Local 2228 organizing committee in the mid-1960s, was asked to be a lead organizer by other committee members. He was hesitant to accept at first but agreed to do so after Wolfgang assured him he was the right person for the job. Davidge went on to become the local's first business manager.

"He was a mentor as well as a co-worker for me," Davidge said. "I didn't have too much of a clue of what I was doing. That was a pretty big job to organize a nationwide local, but he inspired so much confidence in you."

What made it even more impressive is that Wolfgang was leading a successful organizing drive of telephone workers in Quebec at the same time, Davidge said. He routinely made the two-hour drive from Montreal, where he was living, to Ottawa. He also made it a point to learn French when organizing workers in Quebec.

"I don't know how many tickets he got on that road [between Montreal and Ottawa] but he probably could have paid off his car with them," said Davidge, who also retired to his native British Columbia and remained close friends with Wolfgang until his death. "He made a lot of fast trips."

While still in his 30s, however, Wolfgang was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He continued to work as an international representative and traveled across Canada organizing federal workers but was forced to retire at the relatively young age of 53.

He stayed active in union affairs and charitable efforts, however. Wolfgang often served as a labour representative on the Canada Industrial Relations Board. His more than 30 years of work with the MS Society of Canada was recognized by the organization when it made him one of a select group of honorary directors for more than a decade until his death.

Wolfgang was a mentor to IBEW leaders like Cronk, a Local 230 member whose father served as the first business manager of Vancouver Local 258 and has known Wolfgang since childhood, and current Business Manager Phil Venoit.

"Jim was thoughtful, intelligent, had a great heart and was a 100% union man," Venoit said. "I enjoyed immensely our conversations and his recollections about Canadian and British Columbia labour in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. We owe so much to Jim and those like him who made the IBEW and the labor movement in Canada strong and resilient."

Added First District Vice President Thomas Reid: "Jim was one of the many talented reps who built the IBEW in Canada into what it is today. The legacy he left is what we all should aspire to."

Wolfgang is survived by his wife, Halina. The officers and staff wish her and his many friends and other family members their sympathies during this difficult time.