Related Articles

New Eleventh District
Vice President Sworn In

President Hill (right) administers the oath of office to newly appointed Eleventh District Vice President Lindell K. Lee. (See July/August 2005 IBEW Journal, p. 7) 

Retired

David Johnson

International Representative David Johnson retired, effective August 1, 2005, ending a career that included leadership in his local union, the Michigan AFL-CIO and his county’s Democratic Party.

A native of Richmond, Michigan, Johnson was initiated into Imlay City, Michigan, Local 1410 (later amalgamated into Mason Local 1106) in 1970, after serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He was awarded the Purple Heart in 1968.

Brother Johnson, an installer/repairman at General Telephone (later GTE), was elected president of Local 1410 in 1974 and served as the assistant business manager from 1975 to 1979. He was elected business manager/financial secretary in 1979, serving until 1983, when he was ap­pointed International Representative for the Sixth District by IBEW President Charles H. Pillard.

“I was honored to represent the members of the IBEW,” says Johnson. “I wish them the best and thank them for my career, servicing telephone, cable TV, broadcasting and manufacturing locals.”

In the mid-1970’s, Johnson served the Michigan state AFL-CIO as a trustee, executive council member and executive board member. He later was elected chairman of the Antrim County Democratic Party. Closer to home, he contributed to his community of Bellaire, Michigan, as a volunteer firefighter.

“I’m ready to do some fishing, hunting and golfing,” says Johnson. The entire Brotherhood extends congratulations to Dave, his wife, Isabel, and his entire family on his retirement.

Deceased

Kemit Maurice Dacus

We are saddened to report the July 11, 2005, death of retired Eighth District International Representative Kermit M. Dacus. He was 72.

Brother Dacus was initiated into Local 111, Denver, Colorado, in 1954. An active union member, he served as a steward for 12 years, two four-year stints on the executive board and as assistant business manager for nearly seven years. He also sat on the safety, apprenticeship, grievance, negotiating, labor relations and education committees. Elected business manager-financial secretary in 1973, he served in that capacity until 1976, the year he was appointed International Representative.

Outside the local, Brother Dacus served on the Western States Labor Management Public Affairs Committee (LAMPAC), as Colorado chapter president of Americans for Energy Independence and president of the Colorado Conference of Electrical Workers. He was treasurer of the Denver AFL-CIO and secretary of IBEW System Council U-17, which represented three locals with workers at the Public Service Company of Colora­do. (U-17 included Local 111 and now-defunct Locals 925 and Boulder-based 1436, which amalgamated into Local 111 in 1976.)

As International Representative, Brother Dacus worked at the Eighth District office until 1983, then took to the road, servicing local unions across Colorado until his retirement in 1997.

Brother Dacus graduated from Denver public schools and attended courses at the Rocky Mountain Labor School. He was a big-game bow hunter who also enjoyed camping and golf. In retirement, Brother Dacus and his wife, Jill, were active in their Assemblies of God parish in Littleton, where they led a senior ministry. He also was part of a group that visited ailing parishioners in the hospital. Brother Dacus’s son, Rhett, described his father as a simple, honest man with “a 10,000-yard smile… full of joy all the time.”

The IBEW extends its deepest sympathy to his wife, Jill, family and many friends.

Deceased

William Roy Lewis

Retired International Representative William Roy Lewis died on July 14, 2005, at age 96 at a nursing home in Knoxville, Tennessee.

“He carried his family on his back during the Great Depression,” said Phil Sieg of his father-in-law, who began working in the turbine room at Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Chickamauga Dam shortly before World War II.

Initiated into former IBEW Local 721 in 1944, Lewis, a lifelong Chattanooga resident, served as recording secretary from 1948 to 1952 and president from 1952 to 1963. He served for many years on the IBEW Wage Data Committee of the panel of local unions representing TVA workers.

In 1963, Lewis was ap­pointed as International Representative for the former Twelfth District. He retired in 1976 at age 68.

Lewis was “one of the smartest, most well-read individuals that I have ever met,” said Sieg, who enjoyed discussing politics, philosophy and religion with him.

Lewis, known as “Pappy,” enjoyed opera and traveling with his wife, Myrna, before her death in 1993.

The IBEW sends their deepest sympathy to Brother Lewis’ family and friends.

Transitions

September 2005 IBEW Journal

Swearing-in of Joseph Lohman by International President Edwin D. Hill and International Secretary-Treasurer Jon F. Walters.

Retired

Pat Curley

William Eads

Appointed

Joseph F. Lohman

Lindell K. Lee