Junkin, William Sumner, 1880-1971

William Sumner Junkin (1880-1971), a native of Umatilla County, was graduated from Oregon Agricultural College (Oregon State University) in 1901 with an engineering degree and spent his working life as a telephone lineman and electrician, mostly in Portland, Oregon. He helped to install and maintain the telephones at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition at Portland in 1905. In 1922, he moved to Tigard, Oregon, joined the Portland Fire Bureau in 1927, and retired in 1947. During that period, he installed fire call boxes and World War II air raid sirens .

Junkin first joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local No. 125 at Portland in 1903 and received 50-year honors in 1960. He was elected secretary-treasurer of Pacific District Council No. 1, headquartered in San Francisco, California, in 1912. During his service, he coordinated reporting for a major strike in 1913 against Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He served as secretary-treasurer of Local No. 125 and later on the District 4 executive board. In that capacity, he was a signatory on a district-wide agreement with Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1917.

In 1904, Junkin married Minnie Wyatt, a native of Corvallis, Oregon, and classmate at Oregon Agricultural College. After his retirement, he co-authored, with his wife, a massive genealogy of her ancestors, the Henckel Family, which was published in 1965. The couple had two daughters and lived at Tigard much of their married life.

From the guide to the William S. Junkin Papers, 1906-1960, 1913, (Oregon Historical Society Research Library)