By Herald Grandstaff

Robert J. (Bobby) Bryan addresses delegates at the GCIU 2004 convention.

Robert J. (Bobby) Bryan, who lived and breathed trade unionism and served as Midwest Newspaper 128N president for several years after he wanted to pass the gavel to a younger, healthier leader, died June 23. He was 57. His ashes were spread in Lexington, Ky.

Born July 31, 1947, in Fayette County, Ky., he developed his own homespun style of determination and wit and apologized to no one for them.

When Bryan spoke at union meetings, conferences, and conventions, he had a hatful of folksy expressions. His musings elicited laughter from those present as he got his points across "as clean as a hound's tooth," as he might have said.

GCC/IBT Pres. George Tedeschi said: "It was a privilege and honor to have known Bobby Bryan and to have had him as a friend. He had amazing inner strength and a commitment to helping the little guy or gal. He used his keen wit as he'd take on corporate giants. And he usually won. We could certainly use more 'Bobby Bryans' in our union."

Bryan started his newspaper career at the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union in August 1967.

He became active in local union work and accepted a range of leadership positions, including president of Cincinnati 20N and Midwest Newspaper 128N.

As a special project assignment, Bryan agreed to go to Burlington, Vt., in 1992 to organize the Gannett-owned Burlington Free Press. He kept up with his duties as local president while on assignment. The vote was for GCIU representation. However, a first contract could not be negotiated with Gannett.

In December 2000, he formed Local 128N with the merger of locals 20N, 15N, 37N, and 56N.

As president of Local 128N, Bryan led a struggle to get a contract for Dayton Daily News mailroom workers, who had labored for 12 years with no contract and no pay increase. Cox Enterprises made a "last offer" in March 2003 to gut pay by 20 percent over five years. Bryan made multiple efforts to get Cox officials to relent. They would not.

As a way to combat the Cox corporate giant, Bryan led a rally in July 2003 across the street from the Dayton Daily News building. Tedeschi addressed the crowd of a couple hundred workers and supporters from a Teamsters truck bedecked with banners of support. Others speaking on behalf of the mailroom workers included the city mayor, mailroom workers, and Teamsters leaders.

Bryan coordinated The Dayton Daily News rally with another rally the same day at Cox headquarters in Atlanta, which involved locals 527S and 8M.

After several months with no progress with Cox officials, Bryan arranged to have a billboard illustrated and installed on a Dayton area highway. The billboard showed a huge Cox official shaking money out of a mailroom worker's pockets into a large bag of Cox cash.

Bryan filed several unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Cox. A hearing is scheduled for July 26.

Tony Rapp, Local 128N vice president in Cincinnati, said Bryan was a "bulldog when it came to arbitrations" and had a very high success rate. Bryan kept impeccable records and "crossed every t and dotted every i," Rapp noted.

Rapp observed that "Bobby had a world of knowledge that he accumulated over the years. He worked so long, he had an answer to any question you could ask."

Citing Bryan's "union heart," Rapp said "Bobby's answer to any question was: 'What's best for the people.'"

Rapp, who started working with Bryan in 1985, said that if a situation got hectic or tense, "Bobby would bring things to a lighter side" with one of his homespun observations.

Rapp said one of Bryan's favorite expressions was "pat and turner" that "if we don't do something about Gannett, we'll be patting the sidewalks, turning the corners, and sucking our thumbs for nourishment."

For several years, Bryan wore sunglasses everywhere he went because he was blind in one eye and had almost no vision in the other eye. He used a white cane that looked like it was made from a large dried vine. In recent years, he observed that surgeons wanted to try an experiment on his eye which had vision. Bryan quipped: "They can work on my bad eye, but they're not going to touch my good eye. If they mess that one up, where will I be–absolutely, totally blind. I don't think so."

Rapp reported that for the past 15 years, Bryan was also active with the Cincinnati Association for the Blind by having fund-raisers, and Bryan also visited AIDS victims. Rapp said Bryan would go to the hospital and visit people terminally ill with AIDS, "and it tore him up."

William M. Miller succeeded Bryan as Local 128N president in 2004. Without impinging on Miller's office, Bryan continued to help the local as best he could after relinquishing the gavel. Bryan was trying to get himself healthy and complete details to move to Florida to permanently retire at the time of his death.

Survivors include one sister, Margaret Ann Barnes; two brothers, Charles William and John Vernon Bryan; one daughter, Christiina M. Hussin; three sons, Charles Richard, Michael Joseph, and Timothy Patrick Bryan; and three grandchildren, Bella Rose Bryan, Joseph Bryan, and Adres Hussin, who called him "Papa Bear." Bryan had said his children and grandchildren were the "apple of my eye."

Rapp observed: "He will be missed."