The SIU on May 26 lost one of its icons, as Edward B. Pulver passed away at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, reportedly due to heart failure. He was 78.Pulver’s association with the union dates back more than 50 years. He was a vice president of the Seafarers International Union of North America since 1990, and he also headed the SIU’s office in Jersey City, N.J.
His activities were wide-ranging and repeatedly philanthropic. Pulver was the president and a founding member of the Hudson County (N.J.) Central Labor Council, and served on the state AFL-CIO executive board. He was extremely active in local charities and served for 16 years as president of the Hudson County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was a delegate to several Democratic national conventions, and he championed the local Filipino and Hispanic communities (though he wasn’t of Filipino or Hispanic descent).
Pulver, a native of Jersey City who lived in Bayonne, N.J. for the past 35 years, began sailing in the 1940s on railroad tugs in the New York/New Jersey harbor. He became active in the SIU when the fleet he helped organize elected to affiliate with the organization’s Inland Boatman’s Union.
“He was one of the greatest leaders this organization ever had,” stated SIU President Michael Sacco. “He had so much compassion for people. He went out of his way and devoted his time to helping them achieve the American dream.”
“We’ve lost a great friend. People loved him,” said Willie Zenga, retired vice president of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department. “We go back better than 50 years together. He was one of the well-liked and very exceptional people.”
A New Jersey newspaper described Pulver, who had been hospitalized for about two weeks prior to his death, as “a towering figure in labor circles.”
A number of Pulver’s friends said that he never recovered from the trauma of losing a close acquaintance on September 11, though he continued his work. Pulver’s friend Ana Centeno worked as an accountant at the World Trade Center and died in the terrorist attacks.
'Loved the SIU’
SIU Executive Vice President John Fay said Pulver was “a strong union guy, and he was devoted to the SIU. He loved the SIU. He tried to help everybody, and I never heard anyone say anything unkind about him.”
Bosun Tom Soresi has been a Seafarer for 41 years, and he knew Pulver nearly that long. “He was always a powerful influence on the politics and labor organizations throughout New Jersey,” Soresi recalled. “He was a pleasure to work with and he never refused helping anyone.”
Soresi added that Pulver “helped get NY Waterway off the ground.” The SIU-contracted company, founded in 1986, boasts the largest ferry and excursion fleet in New York Harbor.
SIU Vice President Contracts Augie Tellez first worked with Pulver on the Hudson County Central Labor Council and the New Jersey state AFL-CIO, when Tellez was a vice president of that organization. “I saw him in action, and I saw the respect and credibility that the labor movement got because of him,” Tellez observed.
SIU Vice President Atlantic Coast Joseph Soresi worked with Pulver on matters pertaining to NY Waterway. “He was very well-respected, politically and within the labor movement,” Soresi said. “I knew him more on the political circuit and personally than through the SIU. He was the greatest guy in the world and would do anything for you. Anybody who’s been knighted, as Ed was, obviously has a lot going for him.”
SIU Headquarters Representative Carl Peth said Pulver’s “way with people is what stands out. He cared about people and was able to talk to anybody on their level. As they used to say about (the late SIU President) Paul Hall, he could talk to the senator or the seaman.”
Pulver was a U.S. Army veteran who served in Germany during World War II. He raised money for Memorial Sloan-Kettering and for children fighting cancer, as well as for local scholarship funds and other charitable causes.
While he appropriately was known for his compassion and energy, Pulver also had an unusual trademark of sorts. “He would never wear a tie,” recalled Zenga. “He’d come out wearing a tuxedo but no tie.”
One of the very rare exceptions took place earlier this year in New Jersey, when Pulver introduced Sacco as an honoree at an event benefiting a local chapter of the Catholic Youth Organization.
Pulver is survived by five daughters, two brothers, 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
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