LeBlanc, Gaston.

Gaston LeBlanc was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1911. He began his career as a union organizer in 1940, working for the Industrial Trade Union operating in Rhode Island. Then, in 1944, he began to work for the Textile Workers Union. In 1946 he joined the organizational staff of the United Stone & Allied Products Workers of America (US&APWA), headquartered in Barre, Vermont. LeBlanc then moved in 1950 to Clearfield, Pennsylvania, the US&APWA's regional headquarters for locals at the Harbison-Walter Refractories Company. Five years later he moved to Pittsburgh where he was elected president of the US&APWA, and was responsible for guiding the union through its 1970 merger with the United Steel Workers of America.