William J. Boarman

William Joseph Boarman (June 30, 1946 – August 22, 2021) was an American printer who served as the 26th Public Printer of the United States. Boarman was a labor union leader and government consultant, and served as senior vice-president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and president of that union's Printing, Publishing & Media Works Sector.

Personal life Boarman was born on June 30, 1946, in Washington, D.C., to Julien Norbert Boarman, a handyman and farmer, and Mary Frances (née Edwards), a homemaker. His continuing education included: Printing Industry of Washington, DC, Printing Fundamentals – 1968; Four Year Union Printer Apprenticeship Program – McArdle Printing Company, 1971 Graduate; College level courses at the University of Maryland, University College, American University, and the George Meany University in Silver Spring Maryland; International Foundation Employees Benefit Educational Courses for Trustees, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2005.

He was married for 31 years to Mary Frances Boarman (née Vandegrift), until her death from lymphoma on April 29, 2008. They had two children, Christopher and Lauren. He resided in Severna Park, Maryland with longtime partner Linda McNamara at the time of his death. after falling off his boat at a yacht club in Severna Park, Maryland.

Career Boarman's career in the printing industry spanned 40 years. A Practical Printer trained under the apprenticeship program of the International Typographical Union (ITU), he served his apprenticeship at McArdle Printing Company in Washington, D.C. He later served as a national officer with the ITU (a vice-president in 1984 ) where he was a key negotiator for the ITU in the merger with the CWA in 1987. After becoming the president of ITU shortly prior to the merger, he was re-elected to seven more terms as head of the printing, publishing, and media sector in the merged organization. He was also serving on the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities.

Public Printer of the United States

Nomination and appointment

In April 2010, The White House announced that President Barack Obama would nominate Boarman as the 26th Public Printer of the United States, succeeding the Honorable Robert Tapella. Boarman's nomination for this position was endorsed by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md) who said: "As a practiced and knowledgeable advocate for the GPO and its employees, Bill Boarman is an excellent choice to lead the GPO. I am pleased that the administration recognizes Bill's talents and am confident he will attract bipartisan support in the Senate." The next required step would have been a Senate floor vote. On December 29, after the Senate failed to hold that vote, the President made Boarman the Public Printer by a recess appointment. The Washington Post announced that Boarman officially "took the helm of the Government Printing Office" on January 5, 2011, "returning after 37 years to the agency where he began his career as a proofreader."

Testimony about future challenges for GPO During Boarman's confirmation process, he stated in his testimony to the Senate committee that, if confirmed as head of the GPO, he would face the challenge of maintaining traditional printing skills of an aging workforce while helping a 150-year-old organization adapt to a world in which most documents are "born digital":

"The GPO today is a substantially different agency compared with the one I left many years ago," Boarman said. "It employs fewer personnel but is significantly more technologically advanced, and it is responsible for a range of products and activities that could only have been dreamed of 30 years ago: Online databases of federal documents with state-of-the-art search and retrieval capabilities, passports and smart cards with electronic chips carrying biometric data, print products on sustainable paper using vegetable oil-based inks, a management infrastructure supported by the latest IT enterprise architecture, and more.... We have an aging workforce, and this is going to be a critical issue in the coming years.... We need to develop a program to recruit and replace the people we are going to lose in the next three to five years." "Their walls are bulging now with books," and the program will have to adapt to deal with material that increasingly is being produced and accessed electronically. He referenced the 1923 poem by Beatrice Warde, "This is a printing office," which concludes: "From this place words may fly abroad, not to perish on waves of sound, not to vary with the writer's hand, but fixed in time, having been verified by proof: Friend, you stand on sacred ground," and then continued:

We still print—using processes that are thoroughly computerized—but we also use digital technology in new and exciting ways. The forms and capabilities of that technology continue to grow, and we embrace them to carry out our job.... But we never forget that the principles of our work are enshrined in Warde's poem, and whether what we do is in print or in bits and bytes, and whether in the long run we call it a printing office or an information office, we never forget that we stand on sacred ground, and that we are here to serve. with an official end of service date of January 3, 2012. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recognized Boarman for his accomplishments during his time as Public Printer and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer praised Boarman for transforming the GPO.