Teamsters Leader Jesse T. Carr Dies : Recently Assumed Union’s Top Western Conference Post

Jesse T. Carr, 59, who was catapulted into the role of a national leader of the 1.7-million-member Teamsters Union just seven months ago, died unexpectedly at his Indian Wells home near Palm Springs Friday.

A union spokesman said Carr died of natural causes, but the exact cause will be determined by an autopsy. He leaves his wife, Helen, who found his body on the living room floor Friday morning.

For more than 28 years, Carr was head of the relatively obscure 12,500-member Teamsters Local 959 in Alaska, where he was considered one of the most influential leaders in the state. His friends and enemies agreed that his influence in Alaska was second only to that of the governor.

Last June, Carr’s influence expanded to the national level, when Teamster President Jackie Presser named him to head the 425,000-member Western Conference of Teamsters. He also became a vice president of the nation’s largest union, and some Teamster officials believed Carr’s new post had put him in line to succeed Presser.

Retained Post

Carr retained his post as head of the Teamsters Union in Alaska, where he maintained a home in addition to homes in Indian Wells and Seattle, which became the headquarters of the Western Conference of Teamsters when Carr took office. The conference--one of four in the giant union--had been based in Los Angeles.

Carr was in Indian Wells as chief sponsor of the Mike Connors Child Help Celebrity U.S.A. Pro-Am Golf Tournament at the Desert Horizon Country Club, a resort financed by pension fund money from the Alaskan Teamsters.

The Alaskan Teamsters were among the first in the United States to get such benefits as dental and prepaid legal programs. Carr won employer agreements to finance two large recreation centers in Anchorage and Fairbanks, complete with swimming pools, tennis, racquetball and basketball courts, and other facilities.

Presser and other union leaders voiced their shock at Carr’s death. Presser said Carr was “a dear, personal friend of mine for many years, a strong unionist, a strong leader and he will be sorely missed.”

Born in Ontario, Carr moved to Alaska in 1951 as a truck driver, became a union activist and officer and ultimately merged five locals in the state into Local 959.

Carr’s influence in Alaskan business and politics was the topic of a series of stories by the Anchorage Daily News in 1976 that won a Pulitzer Prize. In the late 1960s Carr was indicted on charges that included embezzlement, extortion and making false statements to obtain a government loan, but the government ultimately dropped the charges.

Funeral services are pending.