HR1355LRB099 22386 GRL 49801 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Gene
4Vanderport, who passed away on June 25, 2016; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was a native of Danville; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was a graduate of the University
7of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; after graduation, he served
8veterans by working as a social worker at the Veterans
9Administration Hospital in Danville; and
 
10    WHEREAS, While serving the veterans at the Veterans
11Administration Hospital, Gene Vanderport began his lifetime of
12service to working people by assuming a leadership position at
13the American Federation of Government Employees union in the
14hospital; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was so successful in that union
16leadership position at the Veterans Administration Hospital
17that he was called to the union's federal level; from there, he
18was sent across the country as an organizer; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport had such an enormous commitment to
20public education and teachers, students, and support staff in

 

 

HR1355- 2 -LRB099 22386 GRL 49801 r

1the schools that he left Washington, D.C. and returned to
2Illinois as a Uniserve Director for the Illinois Education
3Association of East Central Illinois; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport has made major contributions to
5the civic and social activity of Urbana-Champaign; he is a
6co-founder of many organizations, such as Socialist Forum, the
7Living Wage Association of Central Illinois, and the Mother
8Jones Chapter of Jobs with Justice, the only Illinois chapter
9outside of Chicago; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport has lent his skills to workers who
11were not in his own union, such as the Staley workers in
12Decatur and the Campus Coalition of Workers at the University
13of Illinois; in his last days, he was on the picket line with
14workers from Clifford-Jacobs in Champaign, the Non-Tenure
15Track Faculty Union at the University of Illinois, and
16students, workers, and families protesting the recent and
17drastic State budget cuts; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was not only in solidarity with
19and actively supportive of many human or civil rights movements
20of marginalized or oppressed people, whether they were
21unionized workers or not, he also spent his time and energy
22advancing the causes of social justice, labor rights, and
23political and economic opportunity; therefore, be it
 

 

 

HR1355- 3 -LRB099 22386 GRL 49801 r

1    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
2NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3we, along with his family and friends, mourn the passing of
4Gene Vanderport; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
6presented to the family of Gene Vanderport as an expression of
7our sympathy.