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 Czech American family in Cleveland, Perk dropped out of high school at 15 and later took correspondence courses to earn his high-school diploma. He studied history, political science and mathematics at the Cleveland College of Case Western Reserve University and St. John's College in Cleveland. During the Great Depression he worked as a patternmaker, then worked with his brother George in running the Perk Coal and Ice Company. He went on to work in real estate, but returned to patternmaking during World War II to aid in the war effort, after the military rejected him due to earlier health problems resulting from kidney stones. He became the first Republican to serve as mayor of Cleveland since the 1940s, and proceeded to make future mayoral elections nonpartisan. He was reelected in 1973 and 1975.

It was Perk who also recommended that the Cleveland Division of Police 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 in Richfield, Ohio. Had the CAIA been built, CAIA would have rivaled New York's JFK International Airport, or Chicago's O'Hare International and made Cleveland Hopkins International Airport akin to Chicago's 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. 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). 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.

Campaign for the U. S. Senate and re-election defeat

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 former NASA astronaut and Democrat John Glenn. 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. Metzenbaum lost the primary to Glenn. Subsequently, in 1977, Perk suffered an upset defeat in the non-partisan primary for mayor, finishing third behind Dennis Kucinich, a former political ally, and Edward F. Feighan. Kucinich prevailed over Feighan in the general election, setting the stage for his subsequent mayoralty.

Gaffes

As mayor, Perk was also known for his many political gaffes. 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." 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, Perk was admitted to the Corinthian Skilled Nursing Center in Westlake, Ohio. He died there on April 21, 1999. He was buried at in Brook Park, Ohio.

References

  • The Life & Times of Ralph J. Perk, Cleveland Memory Project (Cleveland State University)