Del Edgbert helped steer Local 47 through some tough times. He served as president during a period of low work and his fellow workers credit him as playing a major role in keeping the local together. He passed away peacefully August 18 at home with family and friends from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), on the night of his high school reunion.
 
Del was born on March 3, 1939 and lived most of his life in Olympia, Wash. He graduated from Olympia High School in 1957 and attended the Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho and graduated in 1962. Del began his working life as a seaman, joining the Coast Guard and serving aboard the cutter Yacona. He turned to longshoring and got his ‘A’ registration in July 1968. He retired Oct. 1, 2002.

Del’s friends remember him as a man of many abilities.

“He was a unique guy, he was multi-talented,” Local 47 Secretary-Treasurer Robert Rose said. “In the last ten years it’s been hotrods. He’s probably one of the most artistic guys you’ll ever see, he could take a piece of junk and make it into something.”

Although much of his life was devoted to longshoring and the ILWU, Del was also a high school English teacher and an instructor of English as a second language. He taught in the U.S. Navy’s Programs Afloat for College Education aboard ships and in foreign countries. He served on the Puget Sound District Council, was a Caucus and Convention delegate, and helped negotiate several contracts as a representative of the small port locals. Del served his local as president from 1980 until 1990, years when low work opportunity threatened the existence of the ILWU in the small ports.

“He was probably responsible for keeping our local afloat during those ten years,” Rose said. “He led this local through some pretty tough times.”

Del’s quest for adventure led him to become a boat inspector in Taiwan. He also assisted his wife in her Olympia-based business, Thompson Framing. Creativity defined Del’s life, his life-long friend Lee Parks said. His avocations were as diverse as his professional interests. He restored the historic sailboat Martha, a 50-ton, 84-foot two-masted staysail schooner built in 1907. In typical fashion, Del credited his wife, his union brothers and his kids for their work on the boat.

“[It’s] just one more example of the brotherhood of this great union,” Del told The Dispatcher in June 1985. “Martha has proudly carried the ILWU flag to ports from San Francisco to Alaska.”
As president of Local 47, he helped organize workers to volunteer to load wheat for the starving people of Ethiopia in 1984.

Del and Paulette traveled to 40 countries, their favorites being those in the Third World, Lee Parks said. He was concerned with abused workers. He was humbled by those who had so little, but were so eager to share. His major regret was that his time to give back was shortened. In Del’s words, “I’m happy I have taken the road less traveled.” Regarding his street rod creations, he said, “Once again it’s a journey from junk to cool, that motivates me.”

He leaves behind Paulette, his wife of 30 years, his children, Gay Lynn Heinrich and her husband Jeff, Jay Edgbert and his wife Jessica, and Quinn Thompson. He had four grandchildren. Del loved his family and eagerly helped them with home remodeling, advice and support. Two brothers, Bill and Bruce, and one sister, Wilma Muir, all living in Washington, also survive him.

—Tom Price, with help from Lee Parks