Walter Wise was appointed general treasurer by General President Joseph Hunt. Wise is a 30-year member of Local 697, Roanoke, Virginia, and also served as business agent for that local.
He was born in Virginia in 1951. He lived in California for a time and returned to Virginia where he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg and studied engineering. Wise was initiated in February 1975, and became a journeyman in 1977. In October 1997, General President Jake West appointed him general organizer. In February of 1998, he was appointed president of the Mid-Atlantic District Council.
Wise has earned the respect of ironworkers that know him by never asking them to do anything that he won’t do. That includes knocking on doors at night, hand-billing or walking a picket line. He is relentless in his efforts to organize and demands the same attitude from his fellow ironworkers. It’s no wonder that his fellow members have coined a phrase about him, “A card signed a day keeps the tall man away.”
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