April 2002 IBEW Journal

Retired

Following thirty-one years of productive service to the IBEW, Peter J. Keenan, Jr. retires as Personnel Director of the IBEW International Office, effective April 1, 2002. He has served in that post since 1984.

A native of New York, Brother Keenan is a career-long member of Local 589, Jamaica, New York. At the local level, Brother Keenan worked as an electrician on the Long Island Railroad, an Executive Board member, local shop committee chairman and political director in the 1970s after service in the U.S. Navy. Brother Keenan became an International Representative and was assigned to the Personnel Department in 1978.

A renowned community activist, his leadership was displayed over many years as a member of the Washington Metropolitan Project with Industry Advisory Committee that employs the disabled in the D.C. area. He was a board member of the Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO Community Services Agency, which gave him its top award in 1999. The March of Dimes did the same in 2000.

Brother Keenan has also represented employees on a variety of health boards and as a member of the Democratic National Committee, the Southern Poverty Law Center, People for the American Way and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation.

He was initiated into Local 589 in 1971, after his 1966-70 Navy service as a Petty Officer 2^nd Class, Aviation Electronic Technician. He received his bachelors degree from Long Island University in 1976 after graduating from Nassau Community College.

Brother Keenan has two daughters, Kelly and Heather, and a grandson, Keenan. He expects retirement to allow more time for fishing and following baseball. The IBEW thanks Brother Keenan for his outstanding service and wishes him and his wife, Patti, a long, healthy and happy retirement.

The IBEW is pleased to announce the appointment of International Representative Glenda Thomason of the Utility Department as the Director of the IBEW Personnel Department. She succeeds Peter J. Keenan Jr., who retired on April 1, 2002.

A native of New Mexico, Sister Thomason became an International Representative and was assigned to the Utility Department in 1994 after 16 years of service to Local 396, Las Vegas, Nevada. She advanced to assistant business manager of Local 396 after three tours of duty in IBEW negotiations with the Nevada Power Company and Davey Tree Surgery. She also served nine years on the Local 396 Safety Committee.

She was initiated into IBEW as a clerical worker at Nevada Power in 1978, then bid into the Apprentice Metering Electrician program and journeyed out in 1982. She became a job steward in 1983. During nine years as a field Metering Electrician, she also served as spokesperson for the Las Vegas Stay in School program.

Sister Thomason arrived at the Utility Department early in the national tussle over utility deregulation and has worked to protect IBEW members through a variety of legislative and administrative actions at both the federal and state level.

Sister Thomason, who has two children and four grandchildren, attended Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, and continued her education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The IBEW extends its congratulations and best wishes in her new position.

Transitions

Retired

Peter J. Keenan

Lawrence E. Rossa

Appointed

Donald C. Siegel

Glenda Thomason

Deceased

Michael Broderick

William F. Ferry

Robert M. Macdonald

Clement M. Rush