Biography

Melvin Walter Schoppert was born in Sunnyside, Oregon, in 1924. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, deployed to the Pacific Theater. In 1952, he began working as a bus driver for the Portland Traction Company. He soon became involved with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, first as a shop steward and then, in 1962, becoming the local’s business representative. In 1972, he was appointed as a vice president of ATU International. He lobbyied the Oregon State Legislature on transit issues, and earned a reputation as a fierce negotiatior. In 1994, ATU Local 757 named its meeting hall after Schoppert.

Schoppert married twice, first to Wanda Eileen Burkett in 1949. She died in 1995, and Schoppert remarried, to Darlene E. Carmann, in 1999. Schoppert died in 2002. He was posthumously entered into the Labor Hall of Fame later that year.

Sources: Vital records in Ancestry.com; information provided by Schoppert in his interview; “Cancer Claims ATU’s Mel Schoppert,” Northwest Labor Press, June 7, 2002, Page 2; “Mel Schoppert Honored,” Northwest Labor Press, December 6, 2002, Page 2.

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