Statement of US Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis regarding death of James DeMarce, director of coal mine workers compensation division

WASHINGTON Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement regarding the death of James L. DeMarce, director of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation:

"We at the U.S. Department of Labor are deeply saddened to learn of the sudden death of Jim DeMarce, who served as the director of the department's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation for more than 25 years.

"I extend my sincerest condolences to Jim's wife, Virginia, and their three children, Karl, John and Josephine, as well as to their five grandchildren.

"For many years, Jim has been the face and soul of the department's black lung benefits program for everyone from union officials and mine workers, to members of the coal industry, to state workers' compensation officials, to congressional staffers and to every Labor Department staff person who contributed to making this program work. All of them relied upon Jim's encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of the program, his rock-solid judgment and his unflagging support for coal miners facing black lung, a terrible, man-made illness.

"Jim was the consummate civil servant, in the best sense of that term. He cared about the workers his program served and about his co-workers at the Labor Department. He will be deeply missed by all of us."

James DeMarce lived in Arlington, Va.