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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2017)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 20, 2017 | PAGE 7 IN MEMORIAM Norman Malbin July 17, 1949 — Oct. 1, 2017 Norm Malbin, longtime attor- ney at IBEW Local 48, died Oct. 1 of heart failure at the age of 68. Malbin was a beloved fig- ure in Local 48 and the local la- bor movement. He used his knowledge of the law to help union members and working people. Malbin went to work as gen- eral counsel for IBEW Local 48 in 1998. For more than two decades, he helped police the electrical industry, and defended countless working people who were wronged by their employ- ers. He also helped hundreds of Local 48 members with wills, divorces, and legal advice in weekly legal clinics that he ini- tiated. He advised business managers at Local 48, Local 280 and Local 932. And he or- ganized and led an annual labor law conference at Local 48’s union hall. Since it began in 1996, the Oregon Labor Law Conference has trained hun- dreds of local union stewards and staff on how to defend union members’ rights. He re- tired in July 2014 for health rea- sons, but continued to offer le- gal advice and support to IBEW. Born in Vancouver, Washing- ton, on July 17, 1949, Norman David Malbin was the son of Morris and Malbin and Nadejda Remenchik. It was a family with deeply held political convictions. His father, a radiologist, moved to the Portland area during World War II to provide medical care to Kaiser shipyard workers, and later played a role in the forma- tion of the nonprofit Kaiser Per- manente. An uncle and aunt helped fight against the fascists in Spain in the 1930s. Norm him- self was named after famed Canadian physician Norman Bethune, who served as a sur- geon in the Spanish Civil War. After attending high school at Catlin Gabel in Portland, Mal- bin earned a degree in child psy- chology at the University of Denver in 1971. In 1979, he married Wendy Temko, the daughter of family friends. He was two-years-old when he met her. Malbin went to work for Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), where he was responsible for determining state prevailing wage rates on publicly funded construction projects. While at BOLI, he earned a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School. After passing the bar exam in 1986, he worked at two law firms and later headed a private practice, always in the service of unions and working people. He is survived by his wife Wendy, sons Zak and Ben, and grandchildren Remy and Tessa. The annual labor law confer- ence lives on, and will next take place Jan. 26, 2018, beginning with a tribute to Malbin. REMEMBERING NORM MALBIN A memorial service is tentatively scheduled Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. at the IBEW Local 48 hall,15937 NE Airport Way, Portland. Per wishes of the family, do- nations in his memory can be made to the Northwest Workers Justice Proj- ect (nwjp.org) or to FASCETS, a non- profit his sister founded which edu- cates the public about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (PO Box 69242, Portland, OR 97239). Nellie Fox-Edwards with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley. ...Nellie Fox-Edwards From Page 1 business agent. In 1965 she was elected second vice president of the Oregon AFL-CIO. In 1971, Local 1257 merged into Food and Drug Clerks Lo- cal 1092, and she was hired as a business agent for that local. Two years later she was ap- pointed Women’s Activities Di- rector for the Oregon AFL-CIO. There, she helped establish 17 Committee on Political Educa- tion (COPE) offices around the state, boosting the success rate of labor-endorsed candidates. In 1975 she was elected po- litical director of the Oregon AFL-CIO, defeating incumbent Lloyd Knudsen and another challenger, Doug Dinsmore. Fox-Edwards ran for state la- bor commissioner in 1978, los- ing in the primary to Mary Wendy Roberts, who went on to serve in that post for 16 years. During her career, Fox-Ed- wards served on numerous boards and commissions, in- cluding the governor-appointed TriMet board of directors, the State Advisory Council on Sex Discrimination in Employment, and Planned Parenthood. President Jimmy Carter named her to a nominating panel for a judgeship on the fed- eral appeals court in San Fran- cisco in the late ’70s, and in the early ’80s she was part of a Ore- gon delegation to China and was a whistleblower on unsafe working conditions in Nike fac- tories there. She retired in 1985 at the age of 62. She kept busy lobbying at the Oregon Legislature on be- half of mental health organiza- tions and the American Associ- ation of Retired Persons (AARP). She held several of- fices in mental health organiza- tions, including president of the Mental Health Association of Oregon. She also served as president of AARP’s Oregon branch, and was a member of its national governing board. She received numerous awards for her work, including three from the Oregon Women’s Political Caucus, and a Labor History Person of the Year plaque. In May 1997, she was the first inductee to the Labor Hall of Fame sponsored by the retirees chapter of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council. N ELLIE M AE B ATMAN was born Dec. 15, 1923, in Yakima, Washington to Patrick and Laura Mae Batman. They moved to Oregon when she was one, and she lived in the Portland area most of her life. At age 20 she became a wid- owed mother when her hus- band Edwin Ryder was killed in an auto accident. She mar- ried and divorced Robert Holmes, a dispatcher at IBEW Local 48, and the man she credited for “teaching me the basics of good trade union- ism.” She was married to Fran- cis Fox when she was elected political director. After they di- vorced she married Dr. L.E. Edwards, a Beaverton chiro- practor. He died in 1993. Fox-Edwards spent the last years of her life at an assisted care facility in Hood River, near her daughter in Mosier. Fox-Edwards is survived by daughters Beverly Bruce and Ronell Currie, son Robert Holmes, two granddaughters, and three great grandchildren. She was buried at the Union Point Cemetery in Banks, Ore- gon beside grandson John Mc- Donald Bruce, and her mother. At her request, no service will be held. In lieu of flowers, con- tributions can be made to the National Alliance for Mental Ill- ness of Oregon, 4701 SE 24th, Suite E, Portland, OR, 97202.
