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For 22 years, beginning in 1972, Jack Fandel was the man who ran the Local No. 12 Training Center. Known as a man of deep conviction, in 2004 Jack will receive his 55-year pin from Local No. 12. To this day he displays the kind of dignity that has won him the respect of contractors and union members alike. Literally thousands of today’s plumbers studied under Fandel. Many of them (including the author) have benefited from his many acts of kindness. Here are parts of Jack Fandel’s story. “My father and grandfather were both plumbers. So you could say the Fandels are a plumbing family, and we have been now for almost five generations. One of my sons works as a wholesaler, and several of my nephews are active in Local No. 12. Ours has always been a family that has had a respect for the traditions of our industry. “When I took over the Training Program back in the early ’70s, there really was a kind of turmoil. We didn’t have our own training center back then. We were still using Boston School system facilities. Rocco Sammartano had set up a great program, and for years it was run by Joe Coughlin, who, incidentally, also had the job of assisting the contractors’ association.
Before becoming the Training Director, Jack Fandel worked with the tools for many years. He got his start working with his father, William Fandel, who he refers to as “the finest mechanic I ever knew.” The precision and care that you hear in Jack Fandel’s speech has also been apparent in his plumbing work habits. Recently Jack and his wife Mary purchased a new townhouse in Norton. Fandel decided that the layout of the plumbing and ductwork was taking up excess space. Now in his 70’s, Jack is re-piping his basement. The work is beautiful. “As a kid, I did the usual things that a plumber’s kid does: cleaned fittings, watched my father work. I can still remember when he put a new heating system in our house in Everett. What a beautiful piece of work that was! “When I was in elementary school, my dad had a job with the late Frank Sullivan, over in the Back Bay. My father got me a job cleaning the offices, emptying trash, that kind of thing. When I got out of high school in 1947, I spent three years in the Navy, and enjoyed it to the hilt. After the Navy, I was fortunate enough to get into the apprentice program, and worked for Sandy Plumbing in Mattapan. By the mid-50’s I was working as a Journeyman in Local No. 12.”
When asked to reminisce about the people he knew and worked with through the years, Jack has one particularly strong memory. “Once a year, just in a casual way, John Shine would stop by my office, and take me and my secretary out to dinner. It wasn’t because he wanted anything. He just did it in the most natural way. My greatest respect was for that man, John Shine. He was one of the most intelligent, capable, and honest people I ever met. And many other people in Local No. 12 cherished that same opinion. He had the capacity to be a contractor, and a companion at the same time, without ever compromising the contractors in any way.”
His friendship has been a true benefit to those fortunate enough to know him.
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“But Joe
Coughlin had a heart attack in 1971, and by 1972 the apprentice program
was having big troubles. Kids weren’t showing up, there was drinking in
the school, people weren’t fulfilling their obligations. I got appointed
to the job in 1972. At my first meeting of the Apprentice Committee, we
brought up 62 apprentices on charges. It was a difficult time, but we
needed to get the program back on its feet, and we did.”
For several
years, Jack worked as the Outside Superintendent for J.C. Cannistraro.
He and Cannistraro sometimes butted heads, but to this day John
Cannistraro speaks with great respect for Fandel. Many others have felt
likewise. It was no surprise that when Jack retired, the new Medical Gas
classroom at the Local No. 12 Training Center was named in his honor.
Jack Fandel is
regarded in much the same way. He is someone who worked closely with
both the union and the contractors, a man who earned the respect and
appreciation of both groups.