Ralph Golzio, last living witness to historic Paterson silk strike, dies at 103

Ralph Golzio, perhaps the last person with memories of the great Paterson Silk Strike of 1913 — he was there alongside his feisty mother — died Sunday, two days after the kickoff to the strike’s centennial commemoration.

Mr. Golzio, a resident of the Totowa section of Paterson and the oldest alumnus of Stevens Institute of Technology, turned 103 in October.

The bitter, five-month strike, a watershed event in Paterson history and for the U.S. labor movement, involved 23,000 workers demanding improved conditions at the city’s nearly 300 silk mills. One of the strike leaders was a weaver named Carrie Golzio, who was guided by the words of her father, who had been a wool weaver in Italy:

“No matter where you go to work, don’t let them step on you.”

Carrie became a picket line captain and was arrested several times. She brought her 3-year-old son, Ralph, to organizing meetings at the residence of an immigrant silk worker, Pietro Botto, on Norwood Street in neighboring Haledon. The house, a national historic landmark, is now the American Labor Museum.

Mr. Golzio’s daughter, Linda Sous of Mahwah, said her father had detailed recollection of the gatherings at the Botto home. Angelica Santomauro, the museum’s executive director, said Mr. Golzio spoke on video about his memories of the 1913 strike.

“I think he was old enough at the time to know there was something going on in his mother’s life that was causing unrest,” Santomauro said.

Steve Golin, the author of a 1988 book about the strike, “The Fragile Bridge,” said Carrie Golzio, whom he interviewed in the early 1980s, most definitely would have brought Ralph to strike organizing meetings, especially on Sundays.

“It was like a picnic atmosphere, with a lot of music and speeches,” said Golin, a retired Bloomfield College history professor.

Santomauro and Golin said they are sure that, with Ralph Golzio’s death, there is now nobody alive who was present for the 1913 silk strike.