Go back to More News pageSAN FRANCISCO -- It had been a particularly nasty night of picketing outside the San Francisco Newspaper Agency's distribution plant in Mountain View.
About 50 striking workers -- advertising reps, truck drivers, carpenters, reporters and editors -- walked slowly back and forth in a driving rain. When two dilapidated cars full of carriers arrived, some of them in masks, the strikers erupted in anger.
"Go home!" they shouted, as five Mountain View policemen escorted the carriers through the picket line. "Scabs! Shame!"
Suddenly there was an explosion. A flash of white light arced across the street behind the police. Minutes passed, then someone noticed a man lying in a rain-washed gutter down Leghorn Street, not far from the open door of an electrical transformer.
It was Kent Wilson, a 45-year-old Teamster, who had been driving Chronicle and Examiner delivery trucks for 25 years.
"I had just seen him a few minutes before," said his brother-in-law Craig Pratt, a fellow Teamster. "I was walking by with a cup of coffee. And I heard the explosion, and then I thought, 'Please God, don't let it be Kent.' "He died in my arms."
Mountain View police Monday were continuing to investigate the incident that led to Wilson's electrocution early Sunday. His death stunned the workers on strike against the Chronicle, the Examiner and the S.F. Newspaper Agency, and left the mood solemn at their picket lines throughout the Bay Area. Wilson's friends and co-workers were unanimous in their conclusion that his fun-loving, risk-taking nature, combined with a night of frustration and fatigue, led him to tamper with the 12,000-volt transformer box in an effort to cut the lights at the Newspaper Agency building.
"I think he was just trying a prank, I'm sure that's all it was," said Pratt, 36, an Agency worker for the past eight years.
Wilson was a man who loved working for the Chronicle and Examiner, his friends said, and he believed strongly in the Teamsters Union. His father, Bill, who died six months ago, worked as a union truck driver for 40 years.
Wilson "dove into the strike full force, trying to make it work," said Stan Horwege, a 46-year-old Newspaper Agency driver and one of his best friends for more than 30 years. "I hardly ever saw him after the strike began because he was always working on strike activities. He always took chances. He loved practical jokes. I often tried to keep him out of trouble, but I couldn't be there for him all the time. I think he was probably pretty tired that night and just wasn't thinking straight."
Wilson was remembered as a man who loved to fly airplanes and spend weekends at his small cabin at Pine Mountain Lake in Gold Country. On weekends, accompanied by his dog, Chip, he would fly his blue and white Cessna 182 out of Palo Alto Municipal Airport and meet his wife, Carole, who usually drove because she doesn't like to fly. Married for 25 years, they had no children.
"He had the best sense of humor -- he was always laughing," Carole Wilson said. "He didn't want the strike, but he was very worried that 150 truck drivers, including his brother-in-law Craig, would be fired. Every night when he left for the picket line I told him to be careful."
Pratt and Michael O'Hara, another of Wilson's brothers-in-law and a member of the Carpenters Union 305, visited San Francisco's City Hall Monday and again last night, and met with Mayor Jordan, Will Hearst and other members of management. They vowed to be at the negotiations every day.
"We want both sides to know that this has to be settled," O'Hara said. "Kent would have wanted us to be up here helping. We just want to do what we can to help settle it."
A memorial service will be held at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, at the Elks Club, 4249 El Camino Real, in Palo Alto. In addition to his wife, Wilson is survived by a sister, Karon Shewmaker; four brothers-in-law; four sisters-in-law; his mother-in-law, Dottie Benoit; and many nieces and nephews.
A trust fund for Carole Wilson has been established in the name of her late husband at the S.F. Newspaper Federal Credit Union. Donations should be sent to the credit union at 426 Jessie Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
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