HR1355 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1355 LRB099 22386 GRL 49801 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Gene Vanderport, who passed away on June 25, 2016; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was a native of Danville; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; after graduation, he served veterans by working as a social worker at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Danville; and

WHEREAS, While serving the veterans at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Gene Vanderport began his lifetime of service to working people by assuming a leadership position at the American Federation of Government Employees union in the hospital; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was so successful in that union leadership position at the Veterans Administration Hospital that he was called to the union's federal level; from there, he was sent across the country as an organizer; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport had such an enormous commitment to public education and teachers, students, and support staff in the schools that he left Washington, D.C. and returned to Illinois as a Uniserve Director for the Illinois Education Association of East Central Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport has made major contributions to the civic and social activity of Urbana-Champaign; he is a co-founder of many organizations, such as Socialist Forum, the Living Wage Association of Central Illinois, and the Mother Jones Chapter of Jobs with Justice, the only Illinois chapter outside of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport has lent his skills to workers who were not in his own union, such as the Staley workers in Decatur and the Campus Coalition of Workers at the University of Illinois; in his last days, he was on the picket line with workers from Clifford-Jacobs in Champaign, the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Union at the University of Illinois, and students, workers, and families protesting the recent and drastic State budget cuts; and

WHEREAS, Gene Vanderport was not only in solidarity with and actively supportive of many human or civil rights movements of marginalized or oppressed people, whether they were unionized workers or not, he also spent his time and energy advancing the causes of social justice, labor rights, and political and economic opportunity; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we, along with his family and friends, mourn the passing of Gene Vanderport; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Gene Vanderport as an expression of our sympathy.