Mike Faust remembered at IBEW 309 retiree event

By CARL GREEN

Illinois Correspondent 

Edwardsville, IL – Mike Faust, the longtime business manager of IBEW Local 309, was honored with a remembrance at the annual retirees’ luncheon on Nov. 5 at Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville.

Robert Joseph “Mike” Faust, the business manager and financial secretary from 1970 to 1990, was a member for 67 years. He presided over a period of growth for the local that included construction of its large, well-equipped headquarters in Collinsville. He was also a founder of the Southwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council.

Faust died on Aug. 13 of this year and was honored with a memorial ceremony at the union hall on Aug. 28.

Another longtime local member, Pat Cook, spoke about Faust at the luncheon.

“Mike’s love affair with our local union, 309, resulted in a legacy that continues to benefit all of us here in this room today,” Cook said. “One of the things that came of that legacy – and as well as I knew him over the years, I did not know this – was that Mike was the guy who conceived of and originated this dinner.”

Cook added, “Mike once told me that an international office representative addressing a group of local union business managers told them that the really, really good business managers did not look upon their positions as a job, they looked upon their positions as a vocation.

“Mike was one of those really, really good business managers. That says it all. He left us a legacy that benefited us all. If ever there was a business manager who had a vocation and not a job, it was Mike Faust.”

The current business manager, Tim Evans, said Faust’s wife, Margaret, had asked if they could hold his memorial service at the union hall.

“I said, where else could it have taken place except that union hall? It was a great honor being able to have that day for him and recognize Mike’s dedication to this local,” Evans said.

Award recipients in attendance included three 60-year members, Larry Pierson, Conrad Bauer and Irv Simpson; two 55-year members, Gerald Faughn and James Noble, and one 50-year member, Jerry Moore.