Labor organizer Iorwith Wilber Abel (1908-1987) helped introduce industrial unionism during the 1930s. He later served 13 years as president of the United Steelworkers of America.

Iorwith Wilber Abel was born on August 11, 1908, in Magnolia, Ohio, a small town fifteen miles south of the industrial city of Canton. Abel was reared in a typical working-class family by parents of mixed ethnic origins. His father, John, a skilled blacksmith, was of German background, and his mother Welsh. Abel attended the local elementary schools and graduated from Magnolia High School. In 1925 he went to work for the American Sheet and Tin Mill Company in Canton, where he became a skilled iron molder. Abel changed jobs frequently, finding employment in the 1920s with the Malleable Iron Company and Timken Roller Bearing, among other Canton firms. He also found time to study for two years at the Canton Business College. Then in 1930 the...