Union builder Richard DiLorenzo died Oct. 13, 2001, but with District Council 37 dispersed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, many of his friends and co-workers only received the bad news recently.

For 42 years until he retired in 1994, Mr. DiLorenzo was a city Laborer, rank-and-file activist, leader of two locals, safety expert and union staffer.

To him, the greatest tribute to a trade unionist was to be called an organizer, and in that category, he stood out as one of the all-time greats.

Richie - as he was known to national leaders and rank-and-file members alike - started organizing in the 1950s, when he came home from the Korean War and traded his rifle for a shovel.

Fixing city streets for 50 cents an hour, he said, "We needed a union bad. Jerry Wurf, the first head of DC 37, asked me to help. So I signed up about 900 guys."

They won recognition and raises by bringing thousands of blue collar workers to City Hall for demonstrations that were really one-day strikes.
He was an organizer's organizer, and Mr. Wurf named him chief steward of DC 37. "I took time off work to spread the union to other agencies and clerical employees, but there was no money to pay us. All we got was a few bucks a week for gas."

Mr. DiLorenzo served as a trustee and vice president of Local 924, then he helped found Local 376 and became its vice president in the 1970s.

He went on to organize public workers nationwide, beginning in Nassau and Suffolk counties, then Albany and Buffalo, and finally in Connecticut, Indiana and Ohio.

Working later in the DC 37 Safety and Health Dept., "Richie was still an organizer," said former Education Fund Administrator Kathy Schrier. "Instead of focusing on himself as an expert, he constantly showed members how they're stronger when they work together."

"You don't organize for yourself. You do it for everybody, to make things better. Personally, I've loved every minute of it," Mr. DiLorenzo said at his retirement.

"The union meant so much to him. He was happiest while he was working for the union," said his widow, Dorothy DiLorenzo. In addition to Mrs. DiLorenzo, survivors include his daughters Karen and Lucille and granddaughter Alexis Taylor.

Many members today don't realize what they owe to people like Richard DiLorenzo, who took the risks and did the work and built the union from the ground up.

— Bill Schleicher