
Historical records matching George Edwin Norcross, Jr.
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About George Edwin Norcross, Jr.
George E. Norcross Jr., 69, a South Jersey labor leader whose beliefs in civic involvement and family guided his more than four decades of labor and civic involvement, died yesterday at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center, Camden. Mr. Norcross' health had been declining since January, when he suffered his latest stroke.
A Cherry Hill resident since 1986, he previously had been a longtime Pennsauken resident. He was born in Barrington and raised in Camden.
Mr. Norcross, whose union work began in the 1940s, served as president of the Central Labor Union of Camden and Gloucester Counties - which represented nearly 100 union locals and more than 90,000 workers at its peak - from 1979 until he retired in 1995.
Throughout his career as a labor leader, Mr. Norcross was a champion of efforts that involved unions and others in programs to aid poor and disenfranchised citizens.
Mr. Norcross's father died of pneumonia when Mr. Norcross was just 14 years old, and he began working full time as a courier in the mailroom of RCA in Camden, where his mother also worked. He continued to attend school, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High.
After high school, he served in the Navy.
In the late 1940s, he returned to RCA as a television antenna installer, and he began several union organizing efforts. In 1950, he went to work as an international representative of the International Union of Electrical Workers, crisscrossing the country to aid in union drives.
In 1955, Mr. Norcross landed a job as head of the Union Organization for Social Service, founded in 1944 by area unions to work on community issues including drug and alcohol abuse, job training, food banks, disaster relief, clothing drives, and blood banks.
The program was started in conjunction with the Community Chest, now the United Way. It was the first such program in the nation, and served as a model for later labor organizations, said his son Donald Norcross. Donald Norcross succeeded Mr. Norcross as the agency's president when his father retired from the UOSS at the end of 1993.
Throughout his life, Mr. Norcross was active in the United Way as well as other charitable and community groups.
He wanted to do things for the people, said former Gov. James Florio, who presented Mr. Norcross with the Governor's Peter J. McGuire Labor Excellence Award in 1993.
He took very tough stands on what would be considered soft issues - social services, said Florio, who, as a law student in the mid-1960s, served on the Camden County Council on Aging with Mr. Norcross.
He had very laudable goals. One of his strong points was the ability to put together strong coalitions of people. He was a person of immense drive doing the things he thought were right - and that made him very effective.
Mr. Norcross served as chairman of the 1982 Camden County United Way fund-raising drive, and he served for many years as chairman of the United Way's board, becoming chairman emeritus when he retired. He also served as president of the Associated United Way of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware for nearly a decade. He helped bring about the Camden chapter's Labor Support Committee, which resulted in millions of dollars in donations to various charities.
Mr. Norcross also served on the Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center board of trustees for many years. A believer in the value of education, he worked with Rose Glassberg of the American Federation of Teachers to create the Peter J. McGuire Scholarship program, which has awarded more than $100,000 to the children of union members in South Jersey since its inception in 1985.
With four sons who have been successful in a variety of endeavors, Mr. Norcross' family ranks as one of his achievements. He taught us to be honest to yourself . . . and to always remember your family, said Donald Norcross.
Additional survivors include his wife of 43 years, Carol Conner Norcross; sons George E. 3d, Philip and John; and nine grandchildren.
Friends may call from 6:30 to 9 p.m. tomorrow in the Haddonfield United Methodist Church, 29 Warwick Rd., Haddonfield, where funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Burial will be in Colestown Cemetery, Cherry Hill.
Memorial donations may be made to the Union Organization for Social Services, 4212 Beacon Ave., Pennsuaken, N.J. 08109.
Source - http://articles.philly.com/1998-05-18/news/25742262_1_labor-leader-...
George Edwin Norcross, Jr.'s Timeline
1928 |
October 4, 1928
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Barrington, Camden County, New Jersey, United States
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1956 |
1956
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1957 |
1957
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Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, United States
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1958 |
December 13, 1958
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Pennsauken Township, Camden County, New Jersey, United States
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1998 |
May 17, 1998
Age 69
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Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, United States
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