MAURY FOISY- FAREWELL FELLOW WORKER

By Dave Tucker, IWW

Maury Foisy of Bellingham died January 21 age 88.

Maury was a charter member of the old Bellingham Branch back in the 1980s and paid his IWW dues for a good 20 years, long after that first reincarnation of the IWW faded away in the 1990s.

His obituary was in Friday’s print edition of the Cascadia Daily News. Some of the following is from that obit and others’ recollections, some is from my own friendship with Maury.

Maury was a political science prof at WWU from 1970 to 1997. He was loved and admired by many, and a dear and respected friend of mine- always good for a talk and a beer. Or two.

Maury was a hell of a unionist. He was a Wobbly to the core. He was the son of a coal miner and as a young man was employed in a slaughterhouse; he worked on Eastern Washington wheat farms as a youngster. He told me he knew he was a member of the working class at a very early age.

That laid the foundation for his lifelong belief in unions, and his passion and commitment to the importance of education and social justice.

He was president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) at Western and was a leader in the AFT both locally and nationally. He was a powerful advocate for protecting teachers’ rights and improving the quality of education.

Maury was active in the Whatcom County Human Rights Task Force and “Jobs with Justice” advocating workers’ rights, economic justice, and fair working conditions. He protested wars, beginning with the Vietnam War. I met him during our activism in the fight against Reagan’s intervention in Central America. He was well-known in the “Not in Our Names” anti-Iraq war movement.

A celebration of Maury’s life will be held March 9 at 1 PM, at the Bellingham Ferry Terminal. We will share music and memories and snacks.

So- to our friend and our Fellow Worker, Maury Foisy: Rest in Power, Fellow Worker.

Tuck

Delegate

Whatcom-Skagit Branch

Industrial Workers of the World