His Career

Part One - Okonite Cable

Dad on stairs My dad started working in the shipping department of a wire and cable company in October of 1973 for two reasons: to support his family and to party. Somewhere between beers on the factory floor and the commute home every day, though, ordinary Ed Reilly wound up in the newspaper. The Okonite Santa hat protest of 1987 was a national phenomenon, and my father was wearing a full Santa suit right in the middle of it. Watch part one now >>

Part Two - Mobil Oil

He lived, like so many Americans, through corporate downsizing, forced to find a job - any job - with little education and skilled in a small, niche field. Despite the odds, he landed a job on the port of Mobil Oil in 1996, and he was living his dream, working where the seagulls fly and the boats pass through. It wasn't until a barge exploded on that dock in 2003, though, that he realized what he'd been working for all those years. Watch part two now >>