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France Honors Retiree For Heroism

March 2002 IBEW Journal

The French government recently awarded the Legion of Honor to retired IBEW Local 11, Los Angeles, California, member Cliff Holliday for his heroism as a 17-year-old Canadian solider in 1915 in the World War I trench warfare in France.

Brother Holliday is 103, has been retired since 1970 "and is a legend in Local 11," says fellow member David Desmond. He built that legendand earned dozens of other awardsin the Congress of California Seniors and with such community groups as the Gardena Valley Democratic Club.

Militant community activism came early to Brother Holliday, who joined the celebrated Wobblies, the International Workers of the World, when he came home to Winnipeg in 1918. He migrated to California in 1922 and joined IBEW in 1926. He worked on the historic Harvey House, the train station in Barstow, California, that is now a museum. He became a foreman, once supervising 800 electricians on a job in Torrance, California. He was also a contractorand hes a person who has stayed active in community organizing for 80 years so far.

Cliff Holliday during World War I and at age 103 (far left) last November in retirement and in his Local 11 shirt.