Charles A. Perlik Jr.; News Guild Head Fought Job Discrimination

Charles A. Perlik Jr., 84, who as president of the Newspaper Guild from 1969 to 1987 pushed the union to endorse presidential candidates and worked to end discrimination in the news industry, died Sept. 17 of pulmonary failure at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

He was a Falls Church resident before moving to a Springfield retirement community in recent years.

Mr. Perlik was secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild for 14 years before becoming its longest-serving president. During his final years in office, he helped lead the guild into a merger with the larger and more powerful Communications Workers of America. The guild now represents more than 33,000 reporters, editors and photographers nationwide.

The Guild Reporter said Mr. Perlik was the man who "put an indelible stamp on the union, probably greater than any other executive in its history."

As president of the Newspaper Guild, Mr. Perlik appointed a human rights coordinator to work for equal rights for minorities and women in the industry and pushed for better pay and working conditions and greater job security.

Mr. Perlik attended the 1963 March on Washington that culminated in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and he marched with King in Birmingham and Selma, Ala. Years later, Mr. Perlik and then-AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Thomas R. Donahue spent a night in the D.C. jail for picketing the South African embassy to protest apartheid.

His decision to have the guild endorse a 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. George S. McGovern (S.D.), sparked controversy among union members. Arguments flared again in 1983, when the union endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate, former vice president Walter Mondale, in his unsuccessful campaign against President Ronald Reagan.

Some guild members expressed concern that such endorsements sacrificed journalistic objectivity, but Mr. Perlik argued in 1983 that "we should not surrender our right to speak out on issues of such consequence."

Charles Andrew Perlik Jr. was born in Pittsburgh on Nov. 13, 1923, and started his news career as a copy boy for the International News Service, receiving $18 a week.

After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he enrolled in Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where he received his undergraduate degree in 1948 and his master's degree in 1950. He also was working full time for United Press wire service while he was in school.

He became a reporter for the Buffalo Evening News in 1950 and was elected president of the Buffalo guild in 1951.

During his later career, he served for 18 years as North American vice president of the International Federation of Journalists, a Brussels-based organization committed to the protection and advancement of journalists. He also was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and other professional organizations.

In Falls Church, he was manager and president of the Falls Church little league and director of precinct operations for the Fairfax County Democratic Committee.

He also volunteered at the Newseum, served on the board of the Loudoun County Christmas in April home restoration program and participated in Inova Fairfax Hospital blood drives. He was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax.

Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Marion Ford "Marnie" Perlik of Springfield; three children, Paul Perlik of Charlotte, N.C., Stephen Perlik of Annandale and Lesley Thomas of Marietta, Ga.; and eight grandchildren.