He Did a Lot In 90 Years
After WWI
July/August 2004 IBEW Journal
 Around
IBEW
Local 11 in Los Angeles, California, he became a legend
for his more than 30 years of non-stop political activismand
that was after he retired. Before that, France gave him its
highest military award for his World War I bravery. And he had
a memorable 78-year IBEW career in whichamong other thingshe
helped with the lighting and the sound when movie stars like
Mary Pickford were tackling a new thing called "talkies."
Sadly, that incredible career is over.
Cliff Holliday died May 4 at his home in Gardenia, California,
at the age of 105. Among his survivors are four great grandchildren
and eight great great grandchildren.
Cliff Hollidays tireless contributions
to labors senior citizen groups, including 18 years on the
board of the National Council of Senior Citizens, were chronicled
previously in the March 2002 IBEW Journal when he was writing
essays to encourage votes for congressional candidates who
would protect social security and Medicare. He also served
a term as president the Congress of California Seniors from
1980-84 and was named Advocate of the Year by the California
Commission on Aging in 1989.
A native of Plumas, Manitoba, he got into
the Canadian Army in 1915 when he was l6, listed as a bugle
boy even though "I never touched a bugle in my life."
He fought in the trenches in both Belgium and Francehence
the Legion of Honor from Franceand it wasnt until he was
recovering in England from his second wound that he was sent
home because he was too young to be there. He joined the Industrial
Workers of the World in Winnipeg in 1918 and joined the IBEW
in California, where he moved in 1922.
Veterans groups say only eight of the
650,000 Canadians who served in World War I are known to be
still alive, and Brother Holliday was the last who served
in combat, and there are fewer than 100 living U.S. veterans
of World War I.
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