He was a Methodist minister, labor union activist and the first director of the Department of Social Security at the AFL–CIO before entering government service in his mid-60s.
[5] Cruikshank worked as a deck hand on freighters on the Great Lakes and was a member of the Seafarers Union[6] before attending Oberlin College.
[8] A devout Methodist, Cruikshank entered Union Theological Seminary in 1926 and obtained a Master of Divinity degree in 1929.
He saw his career as a pastor taking him away from felt that people's needs were so great that in 1936, Cruikshank moved to Washington, D.C. and took a series of government jobs.
Cruikshank was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Social Security Financing in 1947, where he became the AFL's point-man on old age and health issues.
He lobbied strenuously for national health care, repeatedly taking on its principal opponent, the American Medical Association (AMA), in the print media and on widely aired radio debates.
He became director of the European Labor Division of the Office of the Special Representative of the President for Europe, which was part of the Marshall Plan, but returned to the United States after just a year.
Cruikshank used his position to protect and enhance Social Security as part of the union movement's commitment to a comprehensive legislative package of federal social insurance programs, including national health care insurance and income supports for the poor, people with disabilities and the unemployed.
[12] He created the AFL–CIO's Social Security Advisory Committee as a political group to press for higher and expanded benefits.
In July 1961, at the urging of Rep. Aime J. Forand (D-Rhode Island), Cruikshank transformed the coalition he had created into the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC).
Cruikshank played a critical role in coordinating the lobbying efforts of NCSC, the AFL–CIO and other groups, and helped engineer a nationally-televised speech by President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on May 20, 1962.
Working with Sen. Clinton P. Anderson (D-New Mexico), Cruikshank mustered a majority in the Finance Committee in favor of the original bill.
The Medicare legislation passed the Senate, was approved by a conference committee, and was signed by President Johnson on July 28, 1965.
In 1969, Cruikshank obtained a position as a visiting professor at the Labor Studies Center at Pennsylvania State University.
In 1980, Cruikshank left the Carter administration to head up an education and research effort with the organization Save Our Security (SOS).
SOS was a coalition of more than 200 organizations — primarily labor unions and advocacy groups for the disabled and the aged — formed in response to efforts to weaken Social Security.
The project developed curricula and educational materials for elementary, secondary and post-secondary students to increase awareness of social insurance.