Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recalled: “On Capitol Hill, Jerry was a force. He was a fiercely loyal ally. He organized neighbor to neighbor, not stranger to stranger. He was values-based and knew his purpose: advancing working families.”
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack also shared stories of McEntee’s support and doggedness in fighting for AFSCME members.
A loyal labor ally
Members of the AFSCME family, including former Secretary-Treasurer Bill Lucy and former AFSCME organizer and area director for California, Arlene Holt Baker, who would later go on to serve as executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, recalled the ways in which McEntee would shape AFSCME and the labor movement.
“Through aggressive organizing, successful mergers and affiliations, he grew our membership dramatically. He increased our power and influence locally and nationally,” Lucy said in a videotaped message. “Jerry totally believed that our union and our movement should remain on the cutting edge of change. He believed we had to be in the struggle for human rights, civil rights and social justice.”
Holt Baker recalled McEntee’s “larger than life” personal approach to mobilizing voters and to rallying crowds at AFSCME conventions and political conventions.
“Jerry McEntee’s imprint will forever be left on the history of the labor movement – and the changes he and (former AFL-CIO President) John Sweeney and others knew were needed to diversify our movement at every level are evidenced in today’s history-making labor movement leadership,” Holt Baker said.
Ed Keller, who succeeded McEntee as executive director of AFSCME Council 13 in Pennsylvania when McEntee took the helm of the international union, recalled how McEntee fought to pass a law in Pennsylvania recognizing public employees and his tenacity in organizing workers there.
“In the history books of the American labor movement, you have John L. Lewis from the mine workers. You have Walter Reuther from the autoworkers. And there is a new name that has to be entered in … Jerry McEntee,” Keller said.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO; Jimmy Williams, IUPAT general president emeritus and Ernest Garrett, president of AFSCME District Council 33, also described McEntee’s influence and friendship.
“To us, he was Superman”
The most powerful tribute to McEntee came from his family.
Kathy McEntee Hammock, the second oldest of McEntee’s four daughters, said, “He was the ultimate ‘girl-dad.’ To us, he was Superman. He was our rock and he was our hero.”
McEntee Hammock added, “He was a fantastic husband, married to the love of his life, Barbara.”
McEntee, she said, was “a ham. He loved to entertain.” He would do so by donning various costumes, including that of an Easter bunny, which, she said, became a favorite among McEntee’s kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.
“He was a teacher,” she said. “He taught us how to ice skate, drive a car … catch crabs. How to treat people with respect, how to be kind and show grace … and he taught us to be humble, never forgetting his roots.”
Also in attendance at the Kennedy Center were former colleagues and friends of McEntee, who joined the speakers in wishing McEntee rest – in peace and in power.
