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Dave Kent, Award-Winning CWA News Staffer, Dies at 61
David P. Kent, associate editor of the CWA News and a union staff member since 1966, died on Dec. 31, 1999 after a 10-month battle against lung cancer. He was 61.
In 1990, he received the Max Steinbock Award, the top feature writing award of the International Labor Communications Association., for a two-part CWA News series on AT&T’s closing of a Radford, Va. microelectronics plant and the shift of work to a maquiladora factory in Matamoros, Mexico. He described the devastating impact of the shutdown on the town of Radford, where workers had earned $9 per hour, and the exploitation of $1-per-hour Mexican workers living in shacks with raw sewage running past their door steps.
In 1972, Kent was selected by then-CWA President Joseph A. Beirne as coordinator of the Labor for McGovern campaign, an initiative of several unions including CWA that took issue with the AFL-CIO’s neutral stance in the presidential race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern.
Before joining the CWA staff, Kent worked from 1961 to 1966 as a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper where he was an active Newspaper Guild member.
A native of St. Joseph, Mo., he attended the University of Missouri school of journalism and took his first newspaper job at the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram in Ohio in 1960.
He was active in the CWA Staff Union and served until recently on the union’s executive committee.
Kent is survived by his wife of almost 12 years, Carol Ann Kent, a son, Gregory, a daughter, Sandra Golden, and three grandchildren.
In 1990, he received the Max Steinbock Award, the top feature writing award of the International Labor Communications Association., for a two-part CWA News series on AT&T’s closing of a Radford, Va. microelectronics plant and the shift of work to a maquiladora factory in Matamoros, Mexico. He described the devastating impact of the shutdown on the town of Radford, where workers had earned $9 per hour, and the exploitation of $1-per-hour Mexican workers living in shacks with raw sewage running past their door steps.
In 1972, Kent was selected by then-CWA President Joseph A. Beirne as coordinator of the Labor for McGovern campaign, an initiative of several unions including CWA that took issue with the AFL-CIO’s neutral stance in the presidential race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern.
Before joining the CWA staff, Kent worked from 1961 to 1966 as a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper where he was an active Newspaper Guild member.
A native of St. Joseph, Mo., he attended the University of Missouri school of journalism and took his first newspaper job at the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram in Ohio in 1960.
He was active in the CWA Staff Union and served until recently on the union’s executive committee.
Kent is survived by his wife of almost 12 years, Carol Ann Kent, a son, Gregory, a daughter, Sandra Golden, and three grandchildren.