John R. Plewa represented the 20th Wisconsin Assembly district from 1972 until 1984, when he was elected a state Senator, representing the 7th district. He served in that capacity until his death in 1995. He represented southern Milwaukee County, including parts of southern Milwaukee and its south suburbs. He is perhaps best known as the author of Wisconsin's family leave law, passed in 1988. The law allowed workers unpaid leave to care for an ailing family member. Wisconsin was one of the first states to have such a law, and it influenced the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
Plewa was born September 22, 1945, to Ervin and Helen Plewa, who ran Ervin's Food Market in Milwaukee. He was a lifelong resident of Milwaukee, graduating from Don Bosco High School in 1963. After receiving a bachelor of education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1968, he taught history and social studies at the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Plewa lost his first race for the state Senate in 1970. Two years later, he won election to the state Assembly. In 1984, Plewa ran in a special election for the state Senate seat vacated when Gerald Kleczka was elected to the United States House of Representatives. After winning a hard-fought primary, Plewa won the general election in his strongly-Democratic district with 80% of the vote. He called himself a moderate progressive, but he was considered by many to be a conservative Democrat. He was a frequent contributor of opinion pieces to local newspapers.
During his years in the legislature, Plewa served on many committees including the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules; Senate Committee on Housing, Government Operations and Cultural Affairs; Senate Aging Committee; Senate Committee on Labor, Business, Veterans Affairs and Insurance; Bicentennial Commission; State Affairs, Consumer and Commercial Credit; Financial Institutions and Insurance; Revenue; Rules; Tourism; Education; and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.
Plewa was active in the Catholic Church, receiving, along with his wife Susan, the Archbishop's Vatican II award for service to the family in 1993. He was also active in Polish-heritage groups, and visited Poland twice. Plewa was instrumental in securing state funding for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to process the collection of Milwaukee photographer Roman Kwasniewski, containing valuable images of Milwaukee's Polish-American south side in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a long-time supporter of the Slavic Studies program at UW-Milwaukee, and the Kruza house, the Polish-heritage exhibit at Old World Wisconsin. The Polish Studies Committee and Polanki Polish Women's Cultural Club of Milwaukee established the John R. Plewa Scholarship for an outstanding UW-Milwaukee student in history or political science in 1997 to commemorate his work.
Plewa was also a member of many community groups, including the Polish National Alliance, Federation Life Association, Milwaukee Society-PNA, 20th Assembly Democratic Unit, Eleemosynarians of St. Francis Hospital, Wisconsin Federation of Teachers, and Southside Businessmen Association. He was also a long-time supporter of a multi-lane highway to divert traffic from suburban streets south of Milwaukee. When the highway was completed in 1999, it was named the John R. Plewa Memorial Lake Parkway in his honor.
Plewa fought cancer for six years, including undergoing successful surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his lung. However, in the fall of 1994, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He was 49 years old when he died on September 13, 1995. At the time of his death, he had the fourth-longest tenure among serving Wisconsin legislators. He is survived by his wife Susan and their two sons, Andrew and Jeremy.
