John Bligh
- Retired teacher
- Retired district representative
George Caulfield, a longtime representative for Manhattan’s District 3 who remained active in the union in retirement, was “the salt of the earth” and “a kind soul” who earned UFT members’ devotion and respect through his tireless advocacy for them.
George died on June 16, 2023, at the age of 74.
George began his teaching career in 1971 as a science teacher at Wadleigh JHS 88 in Harlem. He served as a union delegate for several years and a chapter leader for five of his 23 years at the school. In 1984, he began working as a part-time staffer in the UFT’s Manhattan borough office. He served as a UFT educational liaison from 1991 to 1992 before becoming a special representative. In 1993, he was elected UFT representative for District 3 in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a position he held until his retirement in 2006. During his summers, he worked as a union organizer for AFT locals around the country.
As a retiree, George remained involved in union activities and political campaigns on behalf of union-endorsed candidates. He served as vice chair of the UFT’s Retired Teachers Chapter and was a retiree delegate at the Representative Assembly of the New York State United Teachers and a member of the RTC advisory committee. NYSUT honored him as a Retiree of the Year in 2011, and he received a Marsh/Raimo Award for his political activism at the UFT’s Teacher Union Day in 2019.
In a NYSUT video about the Retiree of the Year award, George said he had been “reenergized” as a UFT retiree. “I don’t have to find time to do the things that I want to do,” he said. “I make time to do the things that I do because I think that it’s really important to our membership, to our future.”
Soon after his retirement, George worked with AFT national staff in Birmingham, Alabama, as a union organizer and representative. In 2008, he went to Portland, Oregon, to help the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals fend off an effort to decertify the union, and he returned the following year to train union stewards and represent members at grievances and mediations.
UFT Vice President Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT who assembled the team that helped the Oregon union, said George developed relationships and built trust in an environment where people initially may not have been happy that he was there.
“The beauty of George is there was no job too big or too small,” she said. “He was just a trouper you wanted to be with.”
RTC Chair Tom Murphy called George a “salt of the earth” person who came up through the ranks and earned UFT members’ love and respect “because he cared about them and acted on his cares.”
“For George, the hierarchy pyramid put the rank-and-file members at the pinnacle,” Murphy said. “Everyone else in the union structure, including officers, existed to support, defend and advocate for the members.”
Retired Bronx Borough Representative Vincent Gaglione, a lifelong friend, said George was a strong advocate for the contract and members’ rights as a district rep. “He wasn’t afraid to disagree with people when he felt the need to do that,” Gaglione said.
George, he said, had a “steel trap mind” that was on display in his unfailing recall of contract details and union activities from years past.
Everybody liked and respected George, Gaglione said. “I don’t know anybody who ever had a bad word to say about him.”
Retired teacher Myra Entenberg, who met George when they both worked at the union’s Manhattan borough office, said she and George were part of a group of UFT members that dined out together on Friday nights and later took trips abroad. George, she said, “was a wonderful human” and very bright.
He had a dry sense of humor and was a trivia buff. “He loved the ‘Honeymooners’ and memorized every one of the shows,” she said.
Entenberg recalled how she and others at the Manhattan borough office, would tease George about the state of his office because “it looked like a bomb went off.”
Retired teacher Nicholas Schkrutz, who occupied the office next to George’s, said George quipped that “those are my footnotes” when he once asked him why so many piles of paper were on the floor.
The two quickly became fast friends because, in addition to their union work, they shared a love of thoroughbred horse racing.
Schkrutz spent time at the race track with George and his brother Richard, who pre-deceased him. “To spend an afternoon with the two of them at Aqueduct Racetrack was indescribable,” he said, laughing as he recalled their bickering about jockeys and bets.
George was a “kind soul,” Schkrutz said. “He was just the best friend that anybody could ever have. He was the best to the members, too.”
UFT Vice President for Education Mary Vaccaro got the measure of George when she faced as a young teacher that sent her to the hospital for a month. George, who was then her district representative, called her every day to check up on her and visited her four times during her hospital stay.
Remembering that remarkable act of service, Vaccaro said, “George embodies what the UFT is.”
Rest in peace George. I was so saddened to hear of his passing just today while attending the RTC chapter meeting. George was to me a kind and beautiful soul. He was a good friend to my husband Marty and Union 100%. I looked up to him because he would go places for the Union, for the members that I would be afraid to go. He would travel to other States, knock on doors and I thought put his life at risk for what he thought was right. God bless your soul George.
My deepest condolences to the Caulfield family and friends. – Mrs. Carol PLotkin