Masonry Magazine January 1979 Page.24
Masonry Industry Mourns Passing of Three Notables
Prominent St. Louis Mason Contractor Walter Kirk Dies
T. Walter Kirk, a St. Louis mason contractor for over 60 years and a respected industry leader, died on October 12 in St. Louis. He was 91.
Mr. Kirk was recognized within the industry nationally for his many years of distinguished service to the Mason Contractors Association of St. Louis, with whom he served several terms as president and as the trustee of many of that group's fringe benefit funds.
In the MCAA, he was active in the formative stages of the Association and was responsible for writing its Code of Ethics. On January 30, 1955, he was elected secretary of MCAA, the post he also held previously with the Association's predecessor the Mason Contractors Association of the United States and Canada. He was elected to the latter post in January, 1927.
Mr. Kirk was born in Eldorado, Kans., on May 10, 1888, and moved to St. Louis with his parents in the early 90s. His first job was office boy in a bank, at the age of 14. Eventually promoted to teller, he left the bank at age 21 to join his father in the bricklaying business. After a three-year apprenticeship (at $1.00 a day in wages), he joined his brother, Charles L. Kirk, and his father, Frank Kirk, and the mason contracting firm of Frank Kirk & Sons was born. He remained active in the firm until his retirement in 1975.
During his active years in the industry, Mr. Kirk pioneered many of the cost accounting and estimating systems that streamlined the business methods and simplified the bookkeeping chores for his fellow mason contractors. Full of energy, he always gave unselfishly of himself and his time to further the cause of the responsible mason contractor.
He is survived by five sons: Robert of Napa, Calif., Jon of Jefferson City, Mo., William of the U.S. Corps of Engineers in Germany, and Thomas and Frank of St. Louis; a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Dukes of St. Louis; 28 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
W. V. Reed, Official of LIUNA, Dies After Lengthy Illness
W. Vernie Reed, 64, general secretary-treasurer of the Laborers' International Union of North America, died of cancer October 5 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Active for many years in the trade union movement on the West Coast, Mr. Reed was assigned to the Washington headquarters of LIUNA in 1960 to direct its organizing department. He became vice president a year later and was elected general secretary-treasurer in 1975.
Mr. Reed was born in Tacoma, Wash. He started work as a hard-rock driller on the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington in 1934. He joined the Laborers' local union in Tacoma and became an official in 1941. Later, he was president of the Tacoma Building Trades Council and president of the Western Washington Laborers' District Council. He started work with the International Union in Seattle in 1958.
Mr. Reed is survived by his wife, Norma, Silver Spring, Md.; two sons, Vernon and Louis, both of Tacoma; two daughters, Sharron Ritchie of Silver Spring, and Pamela of New York City; a sister, Norine Geistle of Tacoma, two brothers, Ivan and Richard, and 10 grandchildren.
Long Illness Claims Rivers Young of Memphis, Tennessee
T. Rivers Young, former business partner of Allen Young in the Young Brothers mason contracting firm of Memphis, Tenn., died on September 29 in Winchester, Tenn., where he and his wife, Kathryn, had recently moved to be near their children.
Mr. Young was the brother of Allen, who is a past president of MCAA. Their mason contracting firm was prominently known throughout western Tennessee where they had completed many noteworthy masonry structures. Rivers was especially noted for his involvement in the development of preassembled brick panel systems.