People Australia

Mick Kennedy, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1923

Labor Call (Melbourne), 5 April 1923, p 3

Michael David Patrick (Mick) Kennedy (1884-1971) rubber worker, trade union official and mayor 

Birth: 11 February 1884 at Sandhurst (Bendigo), Victoria, son of Michael Kennedy (1832-1908), merchant and technical engineer, born in Carrick on Suir, Tipperary, Ireland, and native-born Phoebe, née Coughlan (1856-1933). Marriage: 1912 at Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria, to Edith Florence McCulloch (1893-1978). They had two daughters and three sons. Death: 29 June 1971 at Richmond, Melbourne. 

• Joined Rubber Workers’ Union at time of its inception in 1909. Assistant secretary, Victorian branch, 1915.
• Instrumental in forming the Federated Rubber and Allied Workers’ Union, a federation between NSW and Victorian branches, in 1915; secretary-treasurer, Victorian branch 1917-59; general secretary from 1918 to 1959; court advocate for union.
• The union’s Eight Hours Committee delegate and also delegate to the Trades Hall Council.
• Councillor with Richmond City from August 1922 for twenty-five years, though he was briefly out of office between August 1928 and January 1929. Elected mayor of Richmond for 1923-1924
• Commissioner, Melbourne Board of Works. Deputy controller of rubber on behalf of the Federal Government during WWII. Retired 1959.
• Sometime member of the Technical School Council.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction and generalized atherosclerosis.

Sources
Rubber, Plastics and Cable Industries Journal, October-December 1959, April-June 1971 p 3.