Category: Ralph Perk – Dennis Kucinich 1970’s

Ralph Perk from Wikipedia

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Ralph Perk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Ralph J. Perk
Perk-stokes.jpg
Former Cleveland Mayor Carl B. Stokes (right) “passes the torch” to Mayor-Elect Ralph J. Perk (left) in 1971.
52nd Mayor of Cleveland
In office
1972–1977
Preceded by Carl B. Stokes
Succeeded by Dennis J. Kucinich
Personal details
Born Ralph Joseph Perk
January 19, 1914
Cleveland, Ohio
Died April 21, 1999 (aged 85)
Westlake, Ohio
Political party Republican
Children Ralph J. Perk, Jr., Thomas Perk, Kenneth Perk, Allen G. Perk
Occupation Politician, lawyer

Ralph Joseph Perk (January 19, 1914 – April 21, 1999) was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as the 52nd mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.

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Political career[edit]

Ralph Perk meeting President Richard Nixon in 1973

Perk served five terms on Cleveland City Council from the city’s Ward 13. In 1962, Perk was elected auditor of Cuyahoga County, the first Republican to win countywide office in a half century. He was re-elected in 1966 and again in 1970. In 1969, Perk ran for mayor of Cleveland and was defeated in the general election. In 1971, after two unsuccessful attempts, Perk won the Republican nomination for the office of mayor. He defeated future mayor, governor, and U.S. Senator George Voinovich, then a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, in the primary election. Perk went on to win the general election and was reelected in 1973 and 1975. In 1977, however, Perk suffered an upset defeat in the non-partisan primary election for mayor.

Controversies[edit]

As mayor, Perk became the subject of national ridicule on October 16, 1972, when he accidentally set his hair on fire while he attempted to use a welder’s torch for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a convention in Cleveland [1]

Perk was again publicly humiliated after suggesting that a study on pornography ought to be conducted by municipal sanitation workers. Perk also banned the sale of Playboy Magazine at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, causing even more ridicule to fall upon him. Perk’s wife, Lucille, achieved notoriety when she rejected an invitation from the First LadyPat Nixon to an event at the White House in order to attend her regular bowling night. Later, Perk explained his wife’s comment to mean that she was unable to attend because the invitation had come too late and she was unable to prepare for travel. Perk was rumored to say, “tell them it’s your bowling night.” Though the remark brought howls of laughter, it endeared the Perks to their ethnic base.

As Mayor, Perk started to think about regional Cleveland-Cuyahoga County governmental structure and agencies. In 1972, three years after the Cuyahoga Rivercaught fire and pressures from the EPA, Perk formed the NEORSD-or the North East Ohio Regional Sewer District. Perk recommended the Cleveland Police to move to the Justice Center after years of battles between Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland. In 1973, Mayor Perk and his Akron Counterpart met and proposed building Project CAIA-or Cleveland Akron International Airport on 5,000 acres (20 km2) in Richfield, Ohio. Had CAIA been built, CAIA would have rivaled New York JFK, or Chicago’s O’Hare. Hopkins Airport would have become like Chicago’s Midway Airport. This plan was opposed by nature lovers, who petitioned the US Government to create the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 1974. In 1974 Mayor Perk proposed merging the CTS-or Cleveland Transit System with suburban transit systems. In 1975, voters passed a 1% sales tax to create the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

As mayor, Perk had a reputation of being tough with city employee labor unions. One time, the fire fighters union instigated a protest by closing City Hall one day by standing on the front steps of the building and allowing only the mail and their political allies to gain access. The ploy worked, and the fire fighters received what they were negotiating.

In 1974, Perk won the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat formerly held by William B. Saxbe, who had resigned to accept the appointment to the office of United States Attorney General. Perk, however, was defeated soundly by Democrat John Herschel Glenn, Jr. Perk had stated that he was counting on running against the incumbent senator, Howard M. Metzenbaum, who had been recently appointed to the seat by then Governor John J. Gilligan. When Metzenbaum lost the primary to Glenn (The two were later Senate colleagues for many years.), Perk expressed doubt that he could win the election, particularly in the Democrats year of Watergate.

In 1972, Perk was a part of the opening ceremonies for the American Society for Metals at the Cleveland Convention Center. He symbolically “cut the ribbon” at the Convention, where the ribbon was titanium (which makes sparks when hit with a welding torch) and the scissors were a welding torch. A spark hit his head and his hair caught on fire because of a certain substance put in his hair when he was at the barber’s earlier that day. There were surprisingly around 300 engineers watching, and none of them bothered to mention there was nothing protecting his head before they started. Cameras were rolling all while this was taking place and the most famous picture of Perk was taken that day. Newspapers from Australia and Israel even pictured the mayor with his hair ablaze.

Perk also appointed Richard Eberling in 1973 to chair a committee to redecorate the mayor’s office in City Hall, a move that proved unpopular with numerous sources. In 1974, The Plain Dealer exposed Eberling’s record as a petty criminal in a front-page story; Perk defended Eberling, and approved the financing of project until the amount significantly over-reached the budgeted amount. Eberling’s lover, Obie Henderson was hired as Perk’s personal secretary. Eberling was later found guilty in the death of Ethel M. Durkin, a Cleveland area widow; he also linked himself to the Marilyn Sheppard murder in Bay Village, in 1954. Circumstantial evidence also links Eberling to at least four other murders committed over a period from 1946 to 1970 that involved his stepfather, his purported girlfriend, and both of Mrs. Durkin’s sisters.

Perk died in Westlake, Ohio, in 1999. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brook Park, Ohio.[2]

Family[edit]

Perk’s son, Ralph J. Perk, Jr., served as a municipal court judge in Cleveland from 1989 to 2003. Another son, Thomas Perk, is a council member in the village ofValley View in addition to being a fire fighter. Yet another son, Kenneth Perk, is a member of the Cuyahoga Heights Board of Education. His second youngest son,Allen G. Perk, is the President and CEO of XLNsystems Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Cleveland Mayor Gets Hot-Headed”, AP report in Amarillo Globe-Times, October 17, 1972, p.1. Mayor Perk was at opening ceremonies for the 1972 “Metal Show and Materials Engineering Congress”, and the ribbon-cutting was with an acetylene torch and a metal strip. Sparks from the cutting landed in Perk’s hair, and the flames were quickly extinguished. Perk joked later, “There are more hazards to this job than I expected.”
  2. ^ Vigil, Vicki Blum (2007). Cemeteries of Northeast Ohio: Stones, Symbols & Stories. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59851-025-6
  • The Encyclopedia Of Cleveland History by Cleveland Bicentennial Commission (Cleveland, Ohio), David D. Van Tassel (Editor), and John J. Grabowski (Editor) ISBN 0-253-33056-4

The Complete Kucinich – from Cleveland Magazine

A series of articles about Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland Magazine

The start page is here

 

No one knows Dennis Kucinich like the people of Cleveland. And Cleveland Magazine has been covering his career ever since our inaugural edition in April 1972, when Kucinich tipped his psychedelic Uncle Sam hat on the cover. 
Now that the man with many a moniker — Denny The Kid, The Boy Mayor, Dennis The Menace — has set his sights on the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Cleveland Magazine editors offer this seven-article, four-decade retrospective of Dennis Kucinich and his impact on the city, the region and national politics.
 

Denny the Kid
From Cleveland Magazine, April 1972
It’s a long way from the West Side to the White House, but then again, it’s a long way from St. John Cantius to Council. For the “little people” living under the shadow of the myth that the boy next door can grow up to be president, 26-year-old Councilman Dennis Kucinich is a real-life apparition that walks, talks, and plays the game of politics with the knack of knowing how to use a few basic tools: the middle classes, the media, and a frightening will to win.
Read it

The Prince and The Power
From Cleveland Magazine, April 1978
Few have escaped the wrath of the new mayor and his army of loyal, arrogant courtiers as they wage holy war from City Hall. But are palace skullduggery and management by media helping anyone but Dennis?
Read it

Kucinich on the Couch
From Cleveland Magazine, June 1978
A psychological portrait featuring, among other things, high school sports, comic book superheroes and an adopted family at City Hall.
Read it

Kucinich’s Final Days
From Cleveland Magazine, January 1980
Read it

Dennis Kucinich: The Story
From Cleveland Magazine, May 1996
As Dennis Kucinich rides the wave of his political comeback to challenge Martin Hoke for Congress, he looks back at his childhood and forward to his future, crediting his fall from politics for his new peace of mind. Looks like the boy mayor has finally grown up. 
Read it

from The 30 People Who Defined Cleveland
From Cleveland Magazine, December 2002
Friends and rivals recount their memories of Kucinich’s epic battles as mayor, his years in exile and his triumphant comeback.
Read it

The Missionary
From Cleveland Magazine, December 2007
Dennis Kucinich is running for president — again. Seriously. But the talk-show punch lines and complaints he can’t win only feed his enormous self-confidence. He says he is Cleveland’s message to America. But is Dennis the message we want to send?
Read it

Dennis Kucinich aggregation

1 Dennis Kucinich: The Boy Mayor (Video)
2 Dennis Kucinich from Wikipedia
3 The Complete Kucinich – from Cleveland Magazine
4 CBS Evening News on Cleveland’s Default – Dec., 1978
5 Muni Light 15 Years Later
6 “The King of Spin” From The Scene
7 Kucinich’s Final Days – from Cleveland Magazine
8 NBC’s Tom Snyder interviews Dennis Kucinich at Tony’s in 1978
9 Cleveland mayoral recall election, 1978

Ralph J. Perk from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Ralph J. Perk from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

The link is here

PERK, RALPH J. (19 Jan. 1914-21 Apr. 1999) a Depression-era ice peddler who organized and headed the American Nationalities Movement rose to the city’s highest office with the support of blue collar, ethnic voters. He was born in Cleveland to Mary B. (Smirt) and Joseph C. Perk, a tailor. He graduated from eighth grade from Our Lady of Lourdes School, dropped out of high school, and later took correspondence courses to earn a high school diploma. He studied history, political science and math at the Cleveland College of CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY and St. John College.

As a teenager, Perk worked as a pattern maker before joining his brother, George, in operating the Perk Coal & Ice Co. During World War II, each branch of the Armed Forces rejected Perk as a result of past problems with kidney stones. Perk returned to pattern making to help the war effort. Shortly before reaching the voting age of 21, he joined the 13th Ward Republican Club. He was elected a GOP precinct committeeman in 1940 and led the Southeast Air Pollution Committee to fight industrial pollution in the Flats in the 1940s. In 1953, he was elected councilman from Ward 13, which at the time represented the Broadway-E. 55th St. neighborhood. He served five two year terms on council. During this time, he organized the American Nationalities Movement, an umbrella agency for 35 nationality groups. In 1962, with his election as Cuyahoga County auditor, Perk became the first Republican elected to county office since the mid-1930s. He was re-elected twice and remained the only Republican county official until 1970. In 1971, Perk defeated James M. Carney and Arnold Pinkney, both Democrats, with just 38.7 percent of the vote and succeeded Carl B. Stokes† as mayor of Cleveland (See MAYORAL ADMINISTRATION OF RALPH J. PERK). Perk was re-elected mayor twice: in 1973, when Carney, the Democratic candidate, withdrew two weeks after the primary and was replaced by Council Clerk Mercedes Cotner; and in 1975, when he easily won an election against Pinkney. In 1974, he ran for U.S. Senate and was soundly defeated by John H. Glenn. In 1977, Perk lost his bid for re-election as mayor, coming in third in a non-political primary behind Edward F. Feighan and Dennis Kucinich, who won the run-off. After leaving electoral politics, Perk set-up a consulting business, Ralph Perk & Associates. He advised small businesses and governmental bodies about federal grants.

As mayor, Perk was instrumental in negotiating the 1974 agreement between CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL, Cuyahoga County, and suburban officials that created the GREATER CLEVELAND REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY as a replacement for the Cleveland Transit System. He also helped establish the Emergency Medical Services, the Police Department’s Community Response Unit and the NORTHEAST OHIO REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT. He initiated a significant expansion of CLEVELAND-HOPKINS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and numerous downtown office, commercial, and public building renovations, including the Bond Court Hotel, the Willard Parking Garage, and completion of the Justice Center and the Park Apartments. Perk started the Republican Mayors caucus of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Perk and his wife of 59 years, Lucille Gagliardi, had six sons and a daughter: Ralph Jr., Thomas, Kenneth, Michael, Richard, Allen, and Virginia Bowers. Perk died from complications of prostate cancer at the Cleveland Clinic Hospice Unit of the Corinthian Skilled Nursing Center in Westlake. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery.

Ralph Perk Papers, WRHS

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