Ralph Perk

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Ralph Perk
Perk in 1973
52nd Mayor of Cleveland
In office
November 9, 1971 – November 14, 1977
Preceded byCarl B. Stokes
Succeeded byDennis J. Kucinich
Personal details
Born
Ralph Joseph Perk

(1914-01-19)January 19, 1914
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedApril 21, 1999(1999-04-21) (aged 85)
Westlake, Ohio, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Children7
OccupationPolitician, lawyer

Ralph Joseph Perk (January 19, 1914 – April 21, 1999) was an American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1971 to 1977.

Early life

Born to an ethnic

kidney stones.[1] Perk then moved into politics, becoming a precinct committeeman for Cleveland's Republican Party in 1940 and then assuming the leadership of the Southeast Air Pollution Committee tasked with fighting industrial pollution in the Flats.[1]

Political career

Beginning in 1953, Perk was elected to five two-year terms on

nonpartisan.[4] He was reelected in 1973 and 1975.[1]

Mayoralty

Ralph Perk meeting President Richard Nixon in 1973
Carl B. Stokes
"passes the torch" to Mayor-Elect Ralph J. Perk in 1971

As mayor, Perk benefited from his good connections with President Richard Nixon, allowing Cleveland to obtain federal funds to aid neighborhoods and to help crack down on city crime in the era of Irish American mobster Danny Greene.[3] He also greatly expanded Cleveland's international ties by initiating several sister city partnerships.[5]

It was Perk who also recommended that the

Midway Airport. The plan was opposed by environmentalists, who petitioned the federal government to create the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 1974. In 1974, Mayor Perk also 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, know locally as RTA.[6][1]

In 1972, three years after the Cuyahoga River fire and Mayor Stokes's efforts to clean it up, Perk formed the NEORSD-or the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.[7] In December 1970 a federal grand jury investigation led by U.S. Attorney Robert Jones, the first grand jury investigation of water pollution in the area, led to Jones filing multiple lawsuits against the polluters (about 12 companies in Northeast Ohio).[8][9] After leaving the U.S. Attorney's office for an unsuccessful run for County Prosecutor in 1972, Jones was brought in to the Cleveland Legal Department to assist with NEORSD matters.[10]

In 1974, Perk won the Republican nomination for the

Edward F. Feighan. Kucinich prevailed over Feighan in the general election, setting the stage for his subsequent mayoralty.[11]

Gaffes

As mayor, Perk was also known for his many

Cleveland Convention Center.[12] A spark from the torch had "hit his head and his hair caught fire thanks to a product that a barber put in it earlier in the day."[6] The mayor later jested, "There are more hazards to this job than I expected."[12] For this, the media proclaimed Perk to be the "hottest mayor in the country" and even Cleveland native Bob Hope joked about the incident.[6]

In another incident, Perk's wife, Lucille, famously rejected an invitation from First Lady Pat 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 throughout the city, it endeared the Perks to their ethnic Eastern European voter base.[6] In yet another gaffe, Perk suggested that a study on pornography ought to be conducted by municipal sanitation workers.[6]

Controversy

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.

Personal life

Perk and his wife had six sons and a daughter.[1] His 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 of Valley 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.

Perk was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the 1990s, and underwent treatments for the disease.[13] The treatment was thought to have been successful, but in early 1998 Perk and his family learned that the cancer had not only returned but had spread. Perk's children spent a year caring for their father at home. Five days before his death,[14] Perk was admitted to the Corinthian Skilled Nursing Center in Westlake, Ohio. He died there on April 21, 1999.[15] He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brook Park, Ohio.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Perk, Ralph J.". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  2. ISBN 978-093298606-1
    .
  3. ^ a b "Mayoral Administration of Ralph J. Perk". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
  4. ISBN 9780877223665
    .
  5. ^ "Cleveland Sister City Partnerships". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Cooley, Patrick (November 2, 2017). "A historic look at former Cleveland Mayor Ralph J. Perk, the 'hottest mayor in the country'". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  7. ^ Seven Making History: A Mayoral Retrospective. Cleveland: The League of Women Voters of Cleveland and the Western Reserve Historical Society. 1990. p. 37.
  8. ^ "U.S. Opens Probe Here on Pollution". The Plain Dealer. April 27, 1971. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  9. ^ Williams, Brian (April 30, 1971). "U.S. Jury Indicts CEI on Ash Dumping in Lake". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  10. ^ "REF 62 "City of Cleveland Employee Badge Law Department Robert Jones" 1973". Home | Robert Walter Jones J.D. Library and Archive. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  11. ^ Rice, Joseph D. (November 9, 1977). "Kucinich Beats Feighan: Youngest big-city mayor wins by 3,000 votes". The Plain Dealer. p. 1.
  12. ^ a b "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.
  13. ^ Larkin, Brent (June 28, 1998). "Twilight Overtaking Mayor Emeritus". The Plain Dealer. p. D1.
  14. ^ Crump, Sarah (April 23, 1999). "Family Was Close in Perk's Last Year". The Plain Dealer. p. B5.
  15. ^ Baranick, Alana (April 22, 1999). "Former Mayor Ralph Perk Dies of Cancer". The Plain Dealer. p. B1.
  16. ISBN 978-1-59851-025-6

External links
Party political offices
Preceded by
Class 3)
1974
 Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Carl B. Stokes
 Mayor of Cleveland
1972–1977 		Succeeded by
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