Bill Sennett’s post-party employment was perhaps most at variance from his erstwhile comrades. Within six years he had become a corporate vice president for the company where he had worked in Chicago, and he eventually became president of an international corporation that leased truck trailers for heavy freight. In addition to his corporate positions, he belonged to the Democratic Socialists of America and helped organize a tenants’ association at the high-rise luxury apartment complex where he lived. In retirement in Tiburon, an affluent suburb north of San Francisco, he became publisher of In These Times, a weekly that presented left perspectives on current events and supported organizations that worked to eliminate poverty and racial discrimination.

Though those who left the party could be quite critical of the party, other party members, and even themselves, few regretted the time they had given to the party. Sennett said, “My life was enriched by having been a Communist.” Eva Lapin Maas reflected, “The Party had shaped our lives, given us a way of viewing the world, framed our family life, and influenced our selection of friends, books, movies, and activities.” Bailey concluded his memoir by reiterating what had guided his life in the party: “To witness an injustice and do nothing—that is the biggest crime.” Eickman was quite critical of the CP but did not regret his time as a member. “The Party gave me an understanding of the class relationship of society,” he said. “It gave me a political attitude that made me different from any of the others in the union who didn’t have that background. I don’t think they understood politics to the same degree.” Tobin also voiced no regrets: “I don’t think anything I ever did countered the interests of the people in this country. . . . What we went out to do, was a good cause.” Angela Gizzi Ward considered that her experience in the party had been “positive,” that she had “learned a great deal,” and that whatever success she had as a union organizer came in part “because of the support I did get from the Party in thinking, and in organizing my ideas.” Carol Cuénod’s major regret was that the Labor Youth League she led had advised high school students to work in factories rather than go to college.

In 1983, on the fiftieth anniversary of the time Elaine and Karl moved in together, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors presented them with a certificate of honor that noted their lifetimes of effort for “Labor, Civil Rights, Peace, and Against Racism” and stated that “their example has been an inspiration to many of us.” The San Francisco Examiner devoted an article to their lifelong commitment to the CP, noting that “their lives are almost synonymous with labor organizing, civil and racial rights causes and an unceasing commitment to involvement.” When Elaine died five years later, Walter Johnson, secretary of the San Francisco Labor Council, spoke at her memorial service and observed that for many years no picket line in the city had been complete without the presence of Elaine and Karl.