Jimmie Apsey
Jimmie Apsey was born December 22, 1937 in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Lawrence Technical University in 1961 with a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering. General Motors recruited him in the infancy of the modern “computer age” when only the US military had computers and corporate America was just learning to incorporate them into industry.
Apsey worked for General Motors both as an employee and as a contractor in the General Motors Computer Science Department from 1961 until 1995. He worked enthusiastically to implement the computerized automation that now dominates the manufacturing sector. His transition from employee to contractor reflected the fact that computer workers were among the sections of workers that put themselves out of work first by implementing the very machines and computer software that eliminates work from manufacturing. There were mass layoffs throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s in the computer worker sector as well as all other manufacturing sectors nationwide, and within General Motors, as computers and robots replaced workers.
Jimmie was a family man who always wanted the family to stay together and work together. He was a lifelong Peace and Justice activist and prophet, speaking his mind on injustices he observed, regardless of how that would effect him personally. He lived with a conviction that the society we live in can become much better for all people and not just for a few of the privileged class, and worked diligently to bring justice to all people. He became conscious of class interests and joined with League of Revolutionaries for a New America to be a better worker for the peace and justice he strived for all his life.
He retired in October 2009 when he had a debilitating stroke and passed away peacefully in the hospital after a struggle with complications of diabetes and heart disease.[1]