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CWA’s Former COPE Chief, Roy Purdy, Dies
LaRoy (Roy) H. Purdy, who comfortably planted his feet in both the worlds of politics and unions, died July 1 at age 92 in a skilled nursing facility near his home in Palm Harbor, Fla.
He retired in 1970 as assistant to President Joseph A. Beirne after a career that included sojourns as a CWA vice president, a Colorado state senator and two turns — in 1968 and 1970 — as the labor movement’s most visible activist on voter registration drives.
Between 1956 and January 1969, he was CWA’s top legislative and political staffer. Under his direction, contributions to COPE set new highs and earned CWA a reputation as the only major union affiliated with the AFL-CIO to consistently meet its COPE quota.
A native of Grand Junction, Colo., Purdy went to work for the former Mountain States Telephone Co. in the Denver area, in 1936, after a brief career as a newspaper reporter. By 1947, he was elected president of the plant local in Colorado, and later served CWA as district director, a title since changed to district vice president.
Purdy also served in the Colorado state senate from 1948 to 1952.
Beirne summoned him to Washington to a CWA headquarters staff position in 1956 and named him civic affairs director in 1958.
He was selected by the late Al Barkan, George Meany’s political chief at the AFL-CIO, to fill in for Roy Reuther, who had died suddenly, as the federation’s voter registration director in 1968, and again, in 1970. Purdy also won plaudits for his political work from Theodore H. White in his bestseller about the 1968 campaign, “The Making of the President, 1968.”
Beirne appointed Purdy an assistant to the president in January 1969.
Survivors include his wife, Doris of Palm Harbor, Fla., two daughters, Barbara J. Lorenz of San Pedro, and JoAnn Chabot of Fairfield, Calif., and a stepson, Chuck Fleischer of Dallas.
He retired in 1970 as assistant to President Joseph A. Beirne after a career that included sojourns as a CWA vice president, a Colorado state senator and two turns — in 1968 and 1970 — as the labor movement’s most visible activist on voter registration drives.
Between 1956 and January 1969, he was CWA’s top legislative and political staffer. Under his direction, contributions to COPE set new highs and earned CWA a reputation as the only major union affiliated with the AFL-CIO to consistently meet its COPE quota.
A native of Grand Junction, Colo., Purdy went to work for the former Mountain States Telephone Co. in the Denver area, in 1936, after a brief career as a newspaper reporter. By 1947, he was elected president of the plant local in Colorado, and later served CWA as district director, a title since changed to district vice president.
Purdy also served in the Colorado state senate from 1948 to 1952.
Beirne summoned him to Washington to a CWA headquarters staff position in 1956 and named him civic affairs director in 1958.
He was selected by the late Al Barkan, George Meany’s political chief at the AFL-CIO, to fill in for Roy Reuther, who had died suddenly, as the federation’s voter registration director in 1968, and again, in 1970. Purdy also won plaudits for his political work from Theodore H. White in his bestseller about the 1968 campaign, “The Making of the President, 1968.”
Beirne appointed Purdy an assistant to the president in January 1969.
Survivors include his wife, Doris of Palm Harbor, Fla., two daughters, Barbara J. Lorenz of San Pedro, and JoAnn Chabot of Fairfield, Calif., and a stepson, Chuck Fleischer of Dallas.