Retired C&T Staffer John Agee Dies at 75

John Agee was known as an effective negotiator and leader who helped members at AT&T deal with the transformation of Ma Bell into its various corporate incarnations following the company's breakup in the early 1980s.

Agee, who retired in 1991 as administrative assistant to Communications and Technologies Vice President Jim Irvine, died on July 7 at 75.

He began his career in the 1950s when he hired on as a switchman for Southwestern Bell in Dallas, Texas.  Agee went on to serve as a steward and then president of Local 6215.  He was named a CWA representative in 1972 and worked out of the Houston office.

Shortly after the Bell System breakup, Agee came to Washington in 1984 to work as assistant to Vice President Ron Allen for the AT&T Technologies unit – the manufacturing arm of the newly configured AT&T.  That office moved to Somerset, N.J., and in 1987 it was combined with the AT&T Communications unit.  Shortly thereafter, Agee became administrative assistant to Jim Irvine.

The C&T offices moved back to Washington, D.C. in July 1990, and that's where Agee worked until his retirement the following year.