Douglas Fraser, 91; Led United Auto Workers in Tough Times

Mr. Fraser retired in 1983 but kept active in politics and union issues. He served as a professor in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs at Wayne State. He also served on the boards of several organizations and as an AFL-CIO arbitrator in jurisdictional disputes between different unions.

After the UAW reached historic agreements with the Detroit automakers last fall that include a lower wage scale for new hires and the union taking on retiree health care for the companies, Mr. Fraser said the deals were necessary to keep the companies afloat and competitive with their Japanese rivals.

"I frankly don't know any other alternative," Mr. Fraser said in an interview in November, praising Gettelfinger for finding creative ways to help the struggling companies while preserving as many UAW jobs as he could.

Born Dec. 18, 1916, in Glasgow, Scotland, Mr. Fraser immigrated to Detroit with his parents six years later. His father, an electrician, was active in unions and frequently took his young son to political meetings.

Mr. Fraser dropped out of high school in his senior year and joined the UAW in 1936.

He said he was fired from his first two jobs for union organizing but eventually found steady work as a "ding man," smoothing out dents in body panels at Chrysler's DeSoto plant. At age 25, Mr. Fraser was president of a UAW local.

When he returned from serving in the Army during World War II, DeSoto executives offered him a management job. He instead joined the UAW staff in 1947 and steadily moved up the ranks through the 1950s and '60s.

He was considered a potential successor to Walter Reuther, the longtime UAW president and labor movement icon. But after Reuther died in a plane crash in 1970, Mr. Fraser narrowly lost a poll of the executive board to Leonard Woodcock, head of the big GM unit.

Mr. Fraser withdrew his bid for the presidency rather than divide the union, and he served with Woodcock as vice president.

He succeeded Woodcock in 1977.