John S. Wilkens, 67; Former RTD Employee Relations Manager
John S. Wilkens, retired manager of employee relations for the Southern California Rapid Transit District and a 34-year veteran of the transit industry, died Monday of cancer at his Cathedral City home. He was 67.
Wilkens, who was born in San Francisco and reared in Northern California and Los Angeles, began his career with the old Asbury Rapid Transit District in 1948 after his graduation from UCLA and Navy service in World War II. Asbury was one of the privately owned forerunners to the RTD.
From 1957 until his retirement in 1983, Wilkens participated in all the labor negotiations for the RTD and was chief labor negotiator for the last 10 of those years.
Survivors include his wife, Sarah, five children and seven grandchildren.
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