Del Castle

By Art Mink

Born Oct. 22, 1915 in Spokane, Wash., Del Castle died on Sept. 12, 2006 after 90 eventful years, most of it working for the rights of working people as a union activist. Castle graduated from Broadview High School in Seattle and the University of Washington. Despite his intellectual credentials, he turned to blue collar jobs, working in lumber mills, railroad yards, steel mills, shipyards and longshoring.

In the 1930s he first became involved in union organizing, participating in strikes with the Sawmill and Timber Workers Union and with the early farm workers union. In 1937, as co-chair of the King County Workers Alliance, he helped organize a two-week occupation of the King County Council chambers by hundreds of the unemployed seeking benefits. In 1942 he was elected secretary of the Shipscaler’s Union. After WWII, he organized lumber workers In Aberdeen.

In 1947 he married Pearl Albino, then an actress with the new Seattle Repertory Theater. They would live together for 52 years and build a loving and creative home for their two daughters and one granddaughter. During the Korean War, Castle was active in the anti-war movement, as he would be later during our invasions of Vietnam and Iraq. During the McCarthy years he was blacklisted and fired from many jobs.

In 1957 Castle became a longshoreman in the 1947 “B pool.” In 1963 he became a member of the ILWU longshore Local 19. Having gone through blacklist purgatory, he was now accepted and protected in earning power, political beliefs and sense of personal worth under the famous union slogan: “An Injury To One Is An Injury To All.”

He served on the Local 19 Executive Board from 1963 until he retired in 1980. He was elected to one term as secretary of Local 19 in 1975.

Following his retirement, he served as Recording Secretary of the “Old Timers,” the Seattle Longshore Pensioners Club for some 15 years and as editor of the Rusty Hook, the newsletter for Seattle’s retired longshore workers, from 1995 until, at age 89, he felt it was time to step down.

Castle will be remembered for his feisty courage, his warm sense of humor and the intellectual companionship and challenge he provided for so many of his friends. He is survived by his daughters, Candis Castle and Kevin Castle and his granddaughter, Kelly Scott. Remembrances may be made to the ILWU, Local 19 Christmas for Kids Fund, 3440 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, WA 98134.