Cummings, William M., 1917-1995.

William M. Cummings was born November 18, 1917 in Kansas City, Missouri, but his family moved to Redwood Falls, Minnesota in 1919 and to St. Paul in 1923. Cummings held a number of different jobs after dropping out of high school. He worked for the Work Projects Administration as a page at the St. Paul Public Library and as a field research worker on the Annals of Minnesota for the Minnesota Writers Project (1938-1941); at the Cudahy Meat Packing Plant (1941-1942); at the Gopher Ordnance Plant in St. Paul and Twin Cities Ordnance in New Brighton (1942-1943); and as a route salesman for Bireleys (1944-1947) and Whistle Bottling Company (1947-1957).

In 1957 Cummings moved with his family to Berkeley, California where he held jobs as an animal caretaker at the University of California-Berkeley (1961-1967) and as a custodian for the Berkeley Unified School District (1967-1980) until he retired.

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