Brother Hawkins was awarded Life Membership in 2003.
Gord joined the Department of National Revenue (Taxation) on June 1, 1970 as an auditor trainee or as they were euphemistically called TIRILS. He was approached by Phil Carberry, then President of Local 013, to be the Steward for the TIRILS, TYADS, and various other audit trainee groups. To this day Gord could never understand why he would want a chronic complainer as a steward but he accepted the invitation. Gord soon graduated to the Local Executive Council where he held virtually every position, except President. He was far too much of a loose cannon ball to be elected to that high and exalted position. The membership preferred sane and sensible people. Although, Gord might be considered sane, he definitely was not considered sensible. However, by some adroit politicking, he was elected Alternate RVP at the Toronto Convention in 1987. It was a close run affair with a determined opposition running on the sensible ticket. However, the sensible people forgot to count the votes, he did and he won. As Betty Bannon was elected 2nd Vice President at the Convention, Gord replaced her as RVP.
He remained RVP until the London Convention in 2002 when he stepped down. Gord retired from the CRA the following year. In retirement, Gord has specialized in sweet nothing.
Gord has have a lot of fond memories from his time in the Union. He enjoyed working with a lot of common folk, many of whom had chosen to forgo career opportunities to participate in Union. Believe it or not, he liked working with a lot of the managers. Yes, some were not very nice people but most were just ordinary folk trying to do their job no matter how inadequately.
Gord served on a number of committees but the one he liked the best was the Honours and Awards Committee. Gord was the Chair of the Committee. It was not one of the high profile jobs in the Union but it gave him the greatest pleasure to recognize the achievements of those members whose selfless dedication to helping others made him feel good about being a member of the Union.