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Encyclopedia Dubuque

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CLARK, Hugh D.

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Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/169599115/person/192201802672/facts?_phsrc=HEg1183&_phstart=successSource

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

CLARK, Hugh D. (LaMotte, IA, May 18, 1913--Dubuque, IA, Oct. 8, 1993). President, Iowa Federation of Labor. For his activities in labor organization in Iowa, Clark was named to the Iowa Federation of Labor's Hall of Fame in 1989. He had served as president of the Iowa Federation from 1966 until 1979.

Moving to Dubuque at the age of eleven, soon after the death of his father, Clark graduated from Columbia Academy and began work as a plumber's apprentice. After working at different sites across the United States, he returned to Dubuque to become the first journeyman plumber hired for the construction of the JOHN DEERE DUBUQUE WORKS.

Active in Local No. 66 Plumbers and Steamfitters of Dubuque, Clark became the business agent for the union in the early 1950s before rising in the state labor offices in the early 1960s. In addition to his presidency of the Dubuque Federation of Labor, Clark served fourteen years as secretary / treasurer of the Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council, ten years as the secretary / treasurer of the Dubuque Building Trades Council, fourteen years as secretary / treasurer of the Iowa State Pipe Trades Association, and two terms as vice-president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

As the chief lobbyist for labor in Iowa, Clark received credit for assistance in the passage of collective bargaining for public employees, improvements in the Iowa workers' compensation law, and improved unemployment compensation legislation. While not specifically a labor issue, Clark worked successfully to bring postcard voter registration to Iowa.

Clark was a delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention. He served four years on the Iowa Development Commission and was a member of the Governor's Committee for Employment of the Handicapped for ten years. He was a charter member of the Iowa Labor-Management Committee and actively served on the Iowa Workers' Compensation Board.

He was inducted into the DUBUQUE AREA LABOR HALL OF FAME.

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Source:

Pritchard, Ken. "Organizing the Work Force," Telegraph Herald, October 29, 1989, p. 10