Table of Contents

1. Mr. NYSUT. Tom Hobart remembers when it hit him that he, a young industrial arts teacher and guidance counselor in Buffalo, was destined to become a union activist.
2. A mother's influence. Tom Hobart is used to challenges. He learned to handle loss at the age of 12, when his father died from complications of tuberculosis. "My father was a high-level engineer, and back then we lived at the top of society," he said. His mother was left to raise two boys on her own, until her remarriage to Charles Molloy, a pharmacist.
3. Growing a family, growing a union. In 1964, Hobart became a building representative for the Buffalo Teachers Federation and was elected president in 1969. Marcella Fugle, a science teacher in the Hamburg schools and union activist, recalled: "Even back then, he had a vision for public education and the role of professional development of teachers that was far ahead of its time."
4. A legacy begins. After months of intense negotiations and meetings around the state, the merger agreement was signed on March 30, 1972. Hobart and Shanker directed the interim governance structure of the 200,000-member statewide union until the new organization's first Representative Assembly was held in March 1973. That election marked Hobart's first victory as president, and installed a slate that included Vice President Antonia Cortese, who would serve with Tom until she was elected American Federation of Teachers executive vice president in 2004. "Tom always started out of the gate a couple miles ahead of the rest of us," Cortese recalled.
5. A dark time. Perhaps Hobart's drive was fueled in part by one of the union's earliest failures. While merger was successful in New York, it did not catch on nationwide. A mainstay during this time was one of Shanker's lessons to never give up.
6. Setting standards. In 1976, Hobart crossed paths again with Buffalo lawyer Arnold Gardner. This time he and Gardner were both appointed to a Regents Advisory Board on Teacher Education. Gardner recalled how that report was visionary for such now customary practices as mentoring and internships for new teachers and for the creation of teacher centers to provide professional development.
7. Adapting to changes. In 1978, Hobart was challenged from within when Executive Vice President Dan Sanders ran against him for president and lost.
8. Representative democracy. NYSUT's mission statement says: "Through a representative democratic structure, New York State United Teachers improves the professional, economic and personal lives of our members and their families, strengthens the institutions in which they work, and furthers the cause of social justice" through the union movement.
9. Key role for SRP members. When NYSUT was a fledgling organization, "no one ever imagined we'd have over a half-million members just 30 years later," said Paul Cole, a former social studies teacher in the Lewiston-Porter schools who is secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO.
10. From health care to higher education. NYSUT had always represented many nurses, a role that expanded when nurses in non-school facilities and other health care professionals joined the union. Anne Goldman, R.N., who chairs NYSUT's Health Care Professionals Council, recalled meeting Tom in the early 1980s: "He was wearing one of his plaid suits. How could you miss him?" she joked.
11. Always responsive. Hobart has made sure he practiced what he was asking people to do in his columns in New York Teacher. When the union asked members to fast for economic justice for migrant workers, Hobart went without meals for two days. When NYSUT sent delegations to examine how the 1993 free trade agreement was worsening conditions in Mexican border towns, he went on one himself, meeting workers and hearing their difficulties. When the national union asked members to support efforts against the AIDS crisis in Africa, he went to that country to meet children, teachers and doctors for himself.
12. The larger stage. Hobart has worked closely with AFT presidents Al Shanker, Sandy Feldman and current President Ed McElroy, and served on the AFT's executive council. McElroy, who previously served 25 years as president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, said, "Tom's work in expanding NYSUT membership over the years has been pivotal to the growth and success of the entire AFT. Tom is the gold standard by which we should judge all union leaders."
13. Giving back. NYSUT Vice President Richard Iannuzzi, who is a candidate to succeed Hobart as president, said he's learned a lot about Hobart during long car rides together over the last several months.
14. Every member, every day. The union achieved a milestone in 2003 when NYSUT organized an extraordinary May rally to protest draconian budget cuts in public education. In his RA speech, Hobart foreshadowed the need for "every member, every day" to join the fight for what students need.
15. Looking to the future. Hobart is proud of the union's many gains, including a strong focus on increasing diversity in NYSUT. Peggy Barmore, Tom's assistant since 1999, noted he "literally walked the walk to increase diversity within the union. He ensured staff and management were reflective of the membership by hiring more women and minorities and appointing them to senior-level positions."
16. The right time. When the merger agreement for United Teachers of New York and the New York State Teachers Association was signed March 30, 1972, Hobart said: "We have made a commitment to working together instead of working at cross-purposes. By joining together, and forming the largest employee organization in New York state, teachers will now have the power to improve the quality of education for every child and to raise the status of the teaching profession."

Text by Betsy Sandberg with editing by Deborah Hormell Ward and Frank Maurizio. Photos courtesy of the Hobart family and New York Teacher archives. We thank Dennis Gaffney for sharing taped interviews.