Skip to Main Content

Charles A. Perlik, Jr.

Charles A. Perlik, Jr. (BSJ49, MSJ50) was a member of the inaugural class of the Medill Hall of Achievement in 1997.

Perlik served as president of The Newspaper Guild before retiring in 1987, after a 32-year career in the Guild international office. He was president for 18 of those years, longer than anyone in the Guild's 64-year history. Before that, he was secretary-treasurer for 14 years, likewise a record.

Perlik, in holding the Guild's helm for almost two decades, put an indelible stamp on the union. Under his leadership, the Guild widened its horizons, both internally and externally. Internally, the Guild intensified and extended its commitment to human rights, establishing the post of human rights coordinator to oversee a program seeking to guarantee full employment opportunity to minorities and equal rights for women in the news industry workplace. Externally, Perlik tried to involve the Guild more widely in legislative activity, which reached a peak in 1977 with the Guild's designation of a temporary full-time representative to mobilize support for labor-law reform legislation.

Perlik Jr. died in 2008.