Wednesday, April 02, 2008
UAW retiree knows the true value of community
A valuable lesson Bill Graff learned from 30 years in the UAW is that it only takes a few people to make a positive difference.
"We saw that obviously with the Reuther brothers," said Graff, 63, who retired five years ago from UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill, Tenn., to the city of Norwood, which is surrounded by Cincinnati. "They preached giving back."
So the journeyman pipe fitter and his wife Vivian looked around his new adopted community and tried to see how they, too, could make a difference. They saw a community with many possibilities but in need of committed people not afraid of hard work. In other words, a perfect fit for a UAW retiree.
| Photo: Courtesy of Bill Graff |
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| Vivian and Bill Graff founded the Norwood Citizens on Patrol, which helps the local police department fight crime. |
And in April they will have a nearly century-old building named in their honor after renovating it so it can become the new home for the Norwood Service League.
"Both Bill and Vivian have used their people skills and practical knowledge learned in life and their jobs to make our city better," said Lupe Gonzalez Hoyt, the NSL's executive director. "Wherever they go, they seem to want to leave things in better shape than they found it.
"They see a problem and find solutions," Gonzales Hoyt added. "They sit around the kitchen table and discuss possible solutions for our agency or (Citizens on Patrol) or the community at large. They are a huge credit to the UAW, and to our country."
A story in the Cincinnati Enquirer noted their efforts and can be accessed through iamtheuaw.org, the union's Web site that asks our members to tell their own stories about our union and our efforts to make our communities better places to live.
The Graffs worked six, sometimes seven days a week to get the building ready for NSL. Bill Graf, a General Motors' "gypsy" – he's worked at six different plants in his 30-year career – said the naming of the building in their honor is nice, but not necessary. He's more interested in seeing how the neighborhood develops as it moves from industrial-type jobs to a more service sector-oriented area. Xavier University is on the city's western edge and has a $100 million expansion project under way.
He also wants to see how two people he's mentoring develop. One man, Gonzales Hoyt said, learned basic jobs skills from Graf as he helped with the renovations, with the hope of becoming employable. And Graf found time to help a youngster in the neighborhood tour the police department and meet the chief and mayor.
"This is just something you do," he said.