[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 161 (Monday, November 2, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2676]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM ``BILL'' CASAMO

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, November 2, 2009

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
the life of Mr. William ``Bill'' Casamo, community activist, human 
rights leader, and U.S Veteran. Bill lived the kind of full, robust 
life we all hope to live, leaving us at the distinguished age of 92 on 
October 21, 2009, at his beloved home in Alexandria, Virginia.
  Mr. Casamo was a proud veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and a one-man 
force throughout the modern American labor movement. His deeply held 
values and experiences truly reflect the best of what the ``Greatest 
Generation'' had to offer our nation.
  Bill was the second child of immigrant parents, Hilda Johanson from 
Norway and Anthony Casamo from Sicily. In 1921, in an effort to provide 
a better life for their family outside bustling New York City, they 
moved to Patterson, NY. Early in his childhood, Mr. Casamo demonstrated 
the strong work ethic that would carry him throughout his life. During 
his summers in Patterson he worked at local restaurants, 
slaughterhouses and meat packing plants to help support his family. In 
1943, he enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps, leaving behind his wife 
and first child to fight in World War II. Mr. Casamo served honorably 
in the Pacific Theater until his discharge in February 1946.
  After the war ended, Mr. Casamo began what would be a lifelong 
dedication to the American labor movement. The map of his career truly 
traces the rise of labor throughout our country. His first union job 
came at the early age of 20 when he was elected a union representative 
at a meat packing plant in New York. Over the next half-century he 
dedicated himself to numerous union organizations, including the United 
Furniture Workers Union, the American Federation of State, County, and 
Municipal Employees, AFSCME, the International Industrial Engineers, 
and the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill 
Workers, which later became the International Brotherhood of Papermill 
Workers, IBPW. He retired in 1985 as the Director of the Retiree 
Affairs Department for IBPW. Mr. Casamo has always been proud of his 
work, often penning a Labor Day message to express his gratefulness for 
the courage, fortitude and vision of American workers. The same can be 
said of a nation's gratefulness for Mr. Casamo.
  Bill Casamo will be deeply missed. He set the standard as an 
exemplary individual who spent his life fighting to make a better life 
for his family and for his brothers and sisters in the labor movement. 
He is survived by his loving wife of 43 years, Eileen Casamo, 4 
children, 16 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Bill will be 
missed, but his warmth, kindness and strength of character will be 
remembered always.

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