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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
COMMEMORATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF FRANK LIVINGSTON ROSEN
WHEREAS, Frank Livingston Rosen was born on July 13, 1925 in Pittsburgh, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and Miami Beach, Florida and moved to the Southwest side of Chicago as a young man; and
WHEREAS, Frank was a lifelong labor leader and political activist and contributed significantly to the labor movement in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Frank passed on November 28, 2016 and is survived by his wife Bernice Selden as well as his children from his first marriage, Rachel DeGolia, Rebecca Balanoff, and Carl Rosen, his six grandchildren, his two great-grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, Frank took part in many of the seminal moments in Chicago history, from studying nuclear physics under Enrico Fermi, to fighting to defend civil liberties in the McCarthy era, to the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, to electing Harold Washington as mayor, to organizing against the unregulated power of utility companies, all while helping thousands of members of his union struggle on a daily basis for decent wages and benefits and dignity on the job; and
WHEREAS, in 1949, Frank met and married his wife of 47 years, Lois Anne (Schafer), two years later they left the university and moved to the Southwest Side of Chicago where they formed a working partnership, raising three children while immersing themselves in union and community organizing; and
WHEREAS, in 1951, Frank took a job as a machine operator at Goodman Manufacturing, a company that built heavy mining equipment worked his way up to maintenance electrician and served on the negotiating committee for 14 consecutive years and helped lead several strikes; and
WHEREAS, Frank was a rank-and-file member of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) for 15 years, joined the national staff of the UE in 1966 and spent the next 10 years assisting UE locals in Chicago and Minneapolis, as well as at the large Allen-Bradley plant i...
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