Arthur T. McCullough

Arthur T. McCullough, a retired vice president of New York 1L and former General Board member, died March 31 at his home in Wallingford, Conn., following a long battle with a bacterial infection. He was 67.

GCC/IBT Pres. George Tedeschi praised McCullough as a "skilled, dedicated and thoughtful union leader. His many friends among GCC/IBT officers, local unions, and staff are very saddened by his passing."

After graduating high school in New York City, McCullough served in the Army for two years.

Following his military service, McCullough apprenticed in 1957 as a photoengraver etcher at the New York World-Telegram and Sun. After a strike at the newspaper, he moved to Syracuse in June 1966 to work at the Syracuse Herald, where he was a member of a predecessor local of Syracuse 284M.

In April 1970, McCullough moved back to Connecticut, where he worked as a camera operator and stripper at Swan Engraving in Bridgeport.

He became a member of Southern Connecticut 282 of the Lithographers and Photoengravers International Union, which became Local 282M following the 1972 merger that created the Graphic Arts International Union.

McCullough served as a chapel chairman, then vice president of that local for two years before being elected president in 1983. He held that post for 16 years until 1999, when the local merged with New York 1L and he became a Local 1L vice president for Connecticut. He retired from Swan Engraving in 2000 to devote his full time to the Local 1L job and to help avoid a layoff at Swan.

While serving as local union president and working at Swan, McCullough developed his skills for contract negotiations and organizing. He nearly doubled the size of the local during that time through organizing and mergers.

His organizing victories included bringing Swan Color Engraving back as a GCIU contract shop in 1986. The shop had decertified in 1971.

Believing that mergers increased local strength, McCullough was instrumental in developing the merger of Local 282M with Stamford 90P in 1987. The merged local became Southern Connecticut 298M. In 1996, Hartford 45N, New Haven 533S, and Danbury 434C transferred into Local 298M.

Also while local president, McCullough served as a member of the New Haven Labor Council and Secy.-Treas. of the Connecticut Allied Printing Trades Council.

In 2000, McCullough was elected to the GCIU General Board from the Atlantic Region. He held that post until he retired in 2004 to undergo a successful lung transplant.

Survivors include his wife Janice; daughter Linda; sons Stephen and Craig; and seven grandchildren.