Daniel L Twiss

1942 - 2023

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Daniel L. Twiss, a retired UAW international representative, who as Jeep unit chairman helped lead a change in labor relations and plant productivity, died Jan. 3 in ProMedica Ebeid Hospice Residence, Sylvania. He was 80.

He was in declining health for several months, his nephew Brent Kutzly said. Exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange during Army service in the Vietnam War contributed to Mr. Twiss losing his eyesight more than a decade ago, Mr. Kutzly said on Tuesday.

Mr. Twiss of Sylvania retired in 2008. His role as a United Auto Workers representative was to negotiate contracts on behalf of UAW members across northwest Ohio.

"He knew what he wanted, and he was diligent at going after it," said Mr. Kutzly, who was a UAW member and retired as a senior engineer at Jeep. "If it was wrong, he did everything he could to make it right."

Mr. Twiss in 1989 stepped aside as chairman of UAW Local 12's Jeep unit to become co-administrator the next seven years of a worker training program that the UAW and Chrysler Corp. opened in Springfield Township.

He started working on the line at Jeep in 1962 and served as a union steward. Election as a committeeman, vice chairman, and chairman of the unit followed.

"He was the type of person who always wanted to do the right thing for people," Mr. Kutzly said. "He hated people being wronged. He was very well liked among coworkers. He never put himself above the people."

His tenure as unit chairman coincided with Chrysler becoming owner of Jeep, succeeding the former American Motors Corp., then owned by French automaker Renault.

"Danny and I worked real close together," said Jerry Huber, former Jeep plant manager. "We had to get our heads together to do things differently that still benefited our workers. Dan was open to that.

"He was firm in his union support and ideas and really was focused on whatever changes had to be good for the workforce as well," Mr. Huber. "We got some things done that a lot of people didn't think would ever happen."

Chrysler's "Product Quality Improvement Partnership" solicited worker input, Mr. Huber recalled.

"It was a different role for everybody, but it was positive," he said.

Bruce Baumhower, president of UAW Local 12, said Mr. Twiss "led the charge to turn our plant around. He was such an honest guy. There was never gamesmanship. He always was straight at you."

Cooperation replaced conflict in management-union relations.

"He was a heroic man for his time," said Pete Gerken, president of the Lucas County commissioners, who also was in UAW Jeep unit leadership then.

"The plant was in danger of being moved from Toledo. And he fought the UAW in Detroit, and he helped us form relationships with the new Chrysler management," Mr. Gerken said. That paved the way for the company's decision years later to build a new Jeep plant.

By November, 1988, 15 months after Chrysler took over, more than 500 workers had taken a course on leadership and self-confidence. Other workers took a course on using personal computers. Union and management jointly published The Jeep Legend, a newspaper that offered information about improving plant efficiency. Mr. Twiss and Mr. Huber each had a column in the paper.

"Most of our problems with [American Motors] was management thought it was so much smarter than employees in the plant," Mr. Twiss said in a 1988 interview.

The qualities he brought to forging change at Jeep also helped him as the worker training center, said Mr. Gerken, who succeeded him as administrator of the worker training center.

"He knew where he had to go and was directed by it," Mr. Gerken said. "He was a generous guy with a great ear, and you knew the direction he was going in. No ambiguity. When he made up his mind, that was his decision."

He was born Nov. 16, 1942, to Harriette and Harold Twiss. He was a 1961 graduate of Sylvania High School. In 1969, he was drafted into the Army. A sergeant, he was an artillery liaison in Vietnam.

He liked to restore classic cars, particularly Chryslers of the 1960s and 1970s, which he took to shows across the region.

"The cars and car shows were his passion," said Mr. Kutzly, whose mother was Mr. Twiss' late sister, Brenda. "Him and I restored cars ever since I could see over a fender. My parents died young. He was like a second father to me. He always wanted to see things done right with people. That rubbed off on me in my career at Jeep."

He and the former Judith Garvin married in 1963. She died on Sept. 28, 2018. The couple did not have children.

There are no immediate survivors.

A celebration of life event will be from 2 p.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday at the Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township, where military honors will begin at 5:45 p.m.

Tributes are suggested to Wreaths Across America Toledo Metro Area Chapter; Toys for Tots; or Paws and Whiskers Cat Shelter.