DAVY, WILLIAM MCKINLEY (9 June 1895-5 Sept. 1973) headed the CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER GUILD for its first 30 years and became a leader in the local councils of LABOR. The son of a Welsh coal miner in Tuscarawas County, he was born in Midvale, O. Davy himself quit school in the 6th grade to enter the mines but soon left to come to Cleveland in 1912. Working first in a hat factory and as a cab driver, he completed his education through extensive reading and married Clevelander Kathryn Wallace in 1917. He entered newspaper work as an office boy and later reporter and columnist for the Central Press Assn., a news syndicate. Unemployed as a result of the Depression, Davy assisted in the founding of Local 1 of the American Newspaper Guild and was hired as its first executive secretary on 1 Dec. 1933. Besides heading the Cleveland local, Davy also served the national as an organizer and international representative. Twice he was executive secretary of the CLEVELAND INDUSTRIAL UNION COUNCIL, from which he campaigned to expel Communists as he had from the American Newspaper Guild. In his home community of LAKEWOOD, Davy was a trustee of Lakewood Hospital and member of the Lakewood Civil Service Commission. He was survived by his wife and 2 daughters, Ruth Murray and Dorothy Inklebarger.
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