IVP James Hickenbotham retires

Former Cement Division director ends 34-year career

James Hickenbotham Jr., 61, International vice president for the CLGAW Division since Oct. 1994, retired January 17.

He began his career as a member of the Paper Workers Union. Eight years later, he went to work for Lonestar Inc. at its Roanoke cement plant, joining Local D314 (Daleville, Va.) in 1973. He served the lodge as both a recording secretary and local president. In January 1988, Hickenbotham was appointed International rep, just four years after the CLGAW union merged with the Boilermakers in March 1984.

Hickenbotham was an active member of the Army Reserves until retiring as a First Sergeant in Sept. 1993. In Jan. 1994, he was appointed to serve as director of the CLGAW Division. He held this position until his appointment nine months later to fill the unexpired term of retiring IVPAL Henry Bechtholdt. Hickenbotham was re-elected IVP of the CLGAW Division at all subsequent consolidated conventions.

While with the Boilermakers union, Hickenbotham continued his education, attending classes on labor law, arbitration, negotiations, and effective writing at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies and the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin.

Hickenbotham is a member of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), serving on the executive board for the North American region. As a member and former co-chair for the ICEM’s materials sector, Hickenbotham often represented the Boilermakers union at global meetings. In 2005, he was elected to a four-year term as chair of the ICEM’s material sector at its world conference in Brussels, Belgium.

Hickenbotham is looking forward to spending his retirement with his wife of 35 years, Betty; his daughter, April; and nine–year-old grandson, Avery.

His position as IVP and member of the International Executive Council will not be filled, in accordance with action granted the IEC at the 31st Consolidated Convention.