Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Roy Reuther spent his formative years attending Wheeling Public Schools alongside his siblings - Walter, Victor, and Ted, Christine. Soon after graduating from high school in 1931, he left West Virginia to settle in the booming Detroit area. Roy’s early exposure to his father’s Socialist ideals shaped the young man’s strong beliefs in equality and opportunity for all workers.
Upon graduating from high school, Roy spent a brief period of time at Brookwood Labor College in New York, where he can be seen in a newspaper article participating in a labor-focused play. By 1934, he had moved to metro Detroit, where he became a member of the Detroit Teachers Federation while living in Ferndale. He quickly joined Walter and Victor to campaign to unionize automobile workers, becoming a key player and leader at the landmark 1937 Flint Sit-Down Strike against General Motors. Their successful organizing allowed the UAW to gain traction across the automobile industry. In the following decades, the transformative gains negotiated by the UAW raised the standard of living for millions of workers and helped create the American middle class.
Roy remained a member of the UAW for the rest of his life. His union activism did not prevent him from serving in the War Production Board during World War II, in a time when activists were looked at suspiciously by the U.S. government. Upon the conclusion of World War II, Roy resumed his activities in social causes.