Submitted by: Nadine A. Hardin

Name:  Lawrence, Michael J.

Names in Obituary:  Auburn, Banning, Bayh, Beutter, Easley, Lawrence, Rybaski, Sardi, Warnock

South Bend Tribune, Obituary; January 8, 1998

LABOR LEADER, SOCIAL ACTIVIST MICHAEL LAWRENCE DEAD AT 76

MISHAWAKA -- Michael J. Lawrence, 76, a retired Teamsters union leader and social activist, died Wednesday in his Mishawaka home.

He had been active in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and in the pro-peace movement during the Vietnam War era in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mr. Lawrence had served as treasurer of the Christian Action Commission of Little Flower Catholic Church in South Bend, where he helped establish the Food for Families program, a community food pantry.

"Here was a guy who had a thirst for social justice," said Robert Warnock Jr., president of Teamsters Local 364.

Born in Flint, Mich., on April 28, 1921, Mr. Lawrence was a World War II veteran of the U. S. Army Air Forces.

He came to the South Bend area in 1952 to work for the U.S. Department of Labor. Later in 1952 he became office manager for Local 364 of the Teamsters union. He later served as a Teamsters business agent, mainly representing workers in the public sector.

"What I always admired about Mike Lawrence was his dedication to working people, his fairness and his integrity,'' said Paula Auburn.

She became acquainted with Mr. Lawrence some 20 years ago when he was business agent for certain city of South Bend employees and she was chief negotiator for the city.

"We were on opposite sides of the bargaining table,'' said Auburn, who is now an adjunct faculty member in the College of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame and a human resources consultant.

Following his retirement from the Teamsters in 1979, Mr. Lawrence worked for state and local employment service agencies for another 10 years.

He received a bachelor's degree in General Studies in 1984 from Indiana University. In 1990 he joined the staff of the Division of Labor Studies at Indiana University South Bend.

While there he assisted in the development of the Labor in the Schools program, which has a mission of developing a greater awareness of the labor movement and its contributions to society.

In 1990, Mr. Lawrence announced he would retire after serving 10 years on the Mishawaka Plan Commission. In a letter to Mayor Robert Beutter, Mr. Lawrence recommended that a woman be assigned to fill his spot on the commission.

At that time, there were no women on the Plan Commission. "If you're excluding -- by accident or design -- 50 percent of the people in a community, that doesn't seem that right,'' wrote Mr. Lawrence.

He also served on the Worker Home Museum advisory committee of the Northern Indiana Center for History.

He was honored as a Sagamore of the Wabash by Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh in 1995 and in 1996 was chosen as the Distinguished Alumni for the I.U. School of Continuing Education.

In addition to his wife, Phyllis, he is survived by two daughters, Katherine Easley of Bethesda, Md., and Margaret Banning of Indianapolis; two sons, John Lawrence of South Bend, and Joseph Lawrence of Indianapolis; three sisters, Ellen Rybaski of Llano, Texas, Patricia Lawrence of Naples, Fla., and Jacqueline Sardi of Raleigh, N.C.; and a brother, Rev. James Lawrence of Davenport, Iowa.

Friends may call at the Hickey Funeral Home at 3516 E. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in Little Flower Catholic Church, 54191 Ironwood Road, South Bend.