Former Guild Vice President Carla W. Beck died on Wednesday, November 4. She was 93 years old.
Beck grew up on cattle ranches in Montana and began working at The Missoulian Newspaper in Montana, first doing part-time work while she attended university. She worked there full time from 1955 until 1962, according to her obituary in the Great Falls Tribune.
She worked at The Great Falls Tribune in Montana from 1966 until 1981 and during that time was the first woman to be elected president of the Great Falls Guild, which was first chartered in 1936.
Beck led a nine-week-long strike at the Tribune in 1974. She was arrested after management called police to escort strikebreakers across the picket line. One of the strikebreakers slugged a photo technician and police threw him to the ground and arrested him, Beck and former President Ralph Pomnichowski, according to The Guild Reporter. Beck was arrested when she fell in the doorway while trying to pick up her eyeglasses, which had been knocked off in the scuffle.
In 1977 Beck was elected as a regional vice president representing the U.S. West. She served as a vice president until 1981. The Guild Reporter wrote that Beck’s nomination and election “surprised much of the convention” because it came after the incumbent immediately withdrew her candidacy for re-election and then seconded Beck’s nomination. She was asked about her objectivity as a reporter of local politics in light of her personal political involvement.
“I don’t know how anybody can be objective,” she responded. “I can only be fair.”
Beck left the Tribune in 1981 and became press secretary for Montana Senator John Melcher until he lost a re-election bid in 1989. Beck was active in the Episcopal Church, served on the Friends of Thurmont Regional Library with her husband and started the North Frederick County Democrats and Friends. Her obituary said that later in life she collected unused Christmas cards each year and gave them to inmates in jails and prisons near Frederick, Md.
Standing, from left: Vice Presidents Robert C. Holt, Jr., of St. Louis and Carla W. Beck, of Great Falls; of the console, Eric Gagnon of the data service.
She was a member of the Coalition of the Labor Union Women and represented the Guild at state and national AFL-CIO conventions, according to The Guild Reporter.
Beck’s funeral services are scheduled for April 10, 2027 at Harriet Chapel in Thurmont, Md.