Robert Cade Oliver
Sergeant, U.S. Army

Robert Cade Oliver was born on 4 November 1909.

In 1942, he went to Washington, DC, as a representative of the Textile Workers Union of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. In 1943 and 1944, he was director of the Southern Cotton Textile Division of the textile union.

Oliver then joined the U.S. Army and served in Europe, reaching the rank of Sergeant. He was awarded the Bronze Star.

After the war, he was Director of Organizing for the CIO in Texas for five years. He returned to Washington in 1950 after he was named Economic and Labor Adviser to the Marshall Plan by President Harry S. Truman. He was an adviser to the Mutual Security Agency, which became the Agency for International Development, and was one of the founders of the International Labor Organization. He also was one of the founders of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

In 1952, Oliver became Executive Assistant to Walter Reuther, president of the CIO, and ran the union umbrella group's national office. He helped to negotiate the merger of the CIO with the American Federation of Labor and then became legislative co-director of the newly formed AFL-CIO.

In 1958, he founded Robert Oliver & Associates, a public relations and lobbying firm. Its clients included the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Department, Sperry & Hutchinson Co. and General Foods. He retired in 1979 and moved to Southern Shores, NC. 

Death and Burial

Robert Cade Oliver died on 24 June 1995. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.