Diller
The more Chris Rader and Mike Ruppert try to fill her shoes, the more impressed they are by what Diana Diller did to organize the annual Lima Labor Day Parade.
“She’s like the duck on the water,” said Ruppert, the business manager/financial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 32. “It looks all calm and everything. Underneath the water, those legs are turning. She made it look so easy.”
For decades, Diller was a driving force behind Lima’s annual parade celebrating the assortment of unions here. She handled much of the behind-the-scenes work to make it happen, up until Diller died Nov. 6 at the age of 76.
“It’s very important to highlight the innumerable contributions that Diana Diller had throughout the years that did go mostly unnoticed,” said Rader, the business manager of Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 329. “She was not ever a loud voice in the room. If actions speak louder than words, then she might have been the loudest voice in the room.”
The parade will recognize Diller’s efforts, with her surviving family members serving as the grand marshals. Diller herself was recognized in the parade back in 2003 as an AFL-CIO honoree.
The parade starts at 10 a.m. Monday at North Street and heads south down Main Street to Lima’s Town Square. Parade floats are still being welcomed through Monday by emailing [email protected].
Diller retired from the U.S. Postal Service, where she worked at the Lima, Elida and Cridersville post offices. She also served on the West Central Ohio Central Labor Council.
As Rader follows her binder full of years’ worth of notes and guidance, he said he becomes more impressed by a dedicated woman he didn’t know that well. Whether it was applying for permits, sending out mailers to area organizations or spreading out the marching bands so there isn’t a “cacophony of noise” in the lineup, the binder helped.
“I definitely now recognize everything that she was doing just because she believed in the unions and the power of volunteerism,” Rader said. “There’s a lot of power in volunteerism. There’s a lot of power in saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’”
It’s also important to continue to recognize the historical significance and current-day influence of unions with the annual parade, Ruppert said.
“People fought and died for these privileges we have today,” Ruppert said. “It shouldn’t be taken for granted. … It should be a celebrated day. It’s about more than just hot dogs, hamburgers and the end of summer. There’s more meaning to it.”
It’s important for all of the area’s union laborers to walk together in the parade, Rader said.
“We get to have pride in our community and walk together, if only for one day,” he said. “We might be at each other’s throats the rest of the time, but for one good day, I hate to use the word solidarity, but we’re showing solidarity. For one good day, everyone recognizes each other for their hard work.”
Sometimes hard work goes unnoticed, much like Diller’s contributions. On Monday, there’s an opportunity to appreciate her and all the other laborers who toil in obscurity.
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See past columns by David Trinko at LimaOhio.com/tag/trinko.
David Trinko is editor of The Lima News. Reach him at 567-242-0467, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
