Reg Theriault dies - ILWU Local 10 longshoreman, author of books on work

Reg Theriault dies - ILWU Local 10 longshoreman, author of books on work
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Reg-Theriault-dies-longshoreman-au...
Carl Nolte
Published 5:11 pm, Friday, February 28, 2014

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Longshoreman Reg Theriault's 1995 book earned lots of praise. Photo: Courtesy Of The Family

A crowd of working men and women will drink a couple of farewell toasts on Saturday during a memorial service at the Bayview Boat Club on the San Francisco waterfront for Reg Theriault, who was one of their own.

Mr. Theriault, who was at various times an itinerant farmworker, a college student, a longshoreman and the author of three books about working people, died of a cerebral hemorrhage Feb. 15 in San Francisco at the age of 89.

His most successful book, "How to Tell When You Are Tired: A Brief Examination of Work," was widely praised when it appeared in 1995. Studs Turkel called it "absolutely wonderful." Kirkus Review said it was "an enlightening report about the dignity of hard work." The Chronicle said it was "delightful and absorbing."

"He wasn't one of those academics who wrote about work," said his son, Thomas Theriault. "He did it."

He noted that his father was born into a family of packinghouse workers who followed the fruit crops. They called themselves "fruit tramps."

"They went from the northwest, to the Sacramento Valley, the San Joaquin, down to the Imperial Valley and sometimes to Texas," the younger Theriault said. "It was a crazy life."

It was also backbreaking work, but it had a dignity to it, which was the point of "How to Tell When You Are Tired" and his other books, "Longshoring on the San Francisco Waterfront" and "Unmasking America's Working Class."

Mr. Theriault wasn't talking about sitting at a computer or talking on the phone, he was talking about hard, physical labor. He thought the workers deserved respect.

"Work is the cardinal fact of the working man and working woman's existence," he wrote.

Reginald Rodney Theriault was born in Seattle in 1924. His family moved so much that he attended dozens of schools, including Mission High School in San Francisco.

He also served as a U.S. Army paratrooper in World War II, and following the war, majored in English at UC Berkeley. He dropped out, and eventually became a longshoreman in San Francisco, unloading ships with a variety of cargoes, from bananas to coffee to cattle hides. He worked as a longshoreman for over 30 years and retired in 1993.

Mr. Theriault served as an officer of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and was a member of the union's negotiating committee.

He is survived by three sons, Thomas, Marcus and Raymond Theriault, all of San Francisco, and three grandchildren.

The memorial service is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Bayview Boat Club, 489 Terry Francois Blvd., San Francisco.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: cnolte@sfchronicle.com