Frank E. Fitzsimmons served as the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1971 until his death in 1981. Fitzsimmons, a loyal lieutenant of Teamster president James Hoffa for much of his career, took over the presidency as a way to free Hoffa from a 13-year prison sentence. Fitzsimmons negotiated with President Richard M. Nixon a commutation of Hoffa's sentence, which stipulated Hoffa could not engage in union activity until 1980. Though Fitzsimmons was never charged with a crime, it was during his tenure that the union's ties to organized crime deepened.

Fitzsimmons was born on April 7, 1908, in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. As a young man he was first employed as a dockworker in Detroit. Fitzsimmons soon shifted to driving a truck and then a bus. He joined the Teamsters in 1934 and became the business agent for a Detroit Teamsters local in 1937. A hard bargainer and loyal to his superiors, Fitzsimmons was...