Ralph Sidney Locher (July 24, 1915 – June 18, 2004) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n-born American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

of the

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who served as the 50th

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Life and career

In 1915, Locher was born in the oil-producing

n town of

Moreni Moreni () is a municipality in Dâmbovița County, Muntenia, Romania, with a population of 22,868. The city is in the eastern part of the county, on the border with Prahova County. It is located east of the county seat, Târgoviște, and about ...

, northwest of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. His father, a Swiss-American, represented Standard Oil in the country from 1906. His mother was a Regat German native to Romania. The family left for the United States in 1928, after the father retired. Locher graduated from

Bluffton College Bluffton University is a private Mennonite university in Bluffton, Ohio. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, with four programs that have earned programmatic accreditation: dietetics, education, music, and social work. The unive ...

and was admitted to the Ohio

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. He became a close associate of Frank J. Lausche, later Governor of Ohio and U.S. Senator, who nurtured his career, first appointing him as secretary of the Ohio State Industrial Commission in 1945. They were instrumental in building the "cosmopolitan Democrats" movement of urban ethnic voters. Locher was law director of

under Mayor Anthony J. Celebrezze beginning in 1953, then succeeded him as mayor when Celebrezze was appointed

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John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

on July 14, 1962.

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Mark McElroy was expected to win the Democratic nomination in the primary election held on October 2, but Locher won the nomination in an upset. Locher easily won election to the remainder of Celebrezze's term in a general election held on November 6. After completing Celebrezze's fifth term, Locher served two full terms of his own as mayor of Cleveland. In 1965, Locher banned all rock concerts at Public Hall and other city-owned venues following a near-riot at a Rolling Stones performance. His tenure was marked by increasing racial tensions in the city, culminating in the Hough Riots of 1966. On April 25, 1967, Locher declared that three recent visitors to the cityFloyd McKissick, national director of the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

(CORE), Alabama governor

George C. Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...

, and civil rights leader

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

were "extremists." On October 3, 1967, Locher lost the Cleveland Democratic primary election to Carl B. Stokes, who he had narrowly defeated in the 1965 general election. Stokes went on to defeat

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Seth Taft in the general election, becoming the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

mayor of a major U.S. city. Locher went on to be elected a

probate court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as Orphans' Courts o ...

judge in 1970, and was elected to the

Ohio Supreme Court The Ohio Supreme Court, Officially known as The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a ...

in 1977, serving two terms. Though a Democrat, he became increasingly conservative as he got older and with longevity in office frequently voting with Republican justices on worker's compensation and other employment issues. He died at his home in

Beachwood, Ohio Beachwood is a city in eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census the city's population was 14,040. History The land that eventually became Beachwood was originally part of the Connecticut W ...

, on June 23, 2004. He was interred at the Old Stone Church columbarium in Cleveland, Ohio.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Locher, Ralph S. 1915 births 2004 deaths Mayors of Cleveland People from Moreni People from Beachwood, Ohio American people of Swiss-German descent American people of German-Romanian descent Ohio state court judges Justices of the Ohio Supreme Court Romanian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American judges Ohio Democrats