WKSU News: Former Mayor John Ballard dies

Monday, April 23, 2012 Former Mayor John Ballard dies Died Saturday night at age 89. by WKSU's MARK URYCKI	Senior Reporter Mark Urycki

John Ballard

In The Region:

Akron residents are remembering the mayor who ran the city during some of its most difficult times in the 20th century. Republican John Ballard died Saturday night at the age of 89. WKSU’s Mark Urycki reports he served 14 years when Akron was in turmoil.

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Akron Mayors (L-R) Roy Ray, Don Plusquellic, Tom Sawyer, John Ballard

In a statement, current mayor Dion Plusquellic said: "In recent years, when I needed to go to the people to ask for their vote on important issues, John Ballard joined me and previous mayors Roy Ray and Tom Sawyer in endorsing ballot issues that were good for Akron. I appreciated his support because he and the other mayors offered their credibility, and continued their service to the people of Akron."

It would be hard to choose a worse time to be mayor. From 1966 through 1979, John Ballard tried to hold together a city as race riots and labor strikes hit home and Viet Nam raged overseas. His Finance Director was Roy Ray.

"The major rubber companies were leaving Akron. They were going to the sunbelt. Also, we were seeing the flight of middle America leaving the city; they were going to the suburbs. And of course the retail establishment were going to the big super malls which were being built outside the downtown area.

In the 70’s, Akron lost 14 percent of its population. A young state legislator at the time, Tom Sawyer, said Mayor Ballard -- in his horn-rimmed glasses -- faced forces larger than any mayor could control.

“I always thought of him as a Clark Kent type character who looked like a mild mannered reporter who from time to time was called upon to do Superman-like service for the city. “Ballard worked with John Knight, the powerful publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal, and the chairmen of the city’s major rubber companies to keep Akron working and transitioning toward a new future. Ballard may have been from the World War II generation, but Roy Ray said he and Planning Director Jim Alkire were building up downtown with projects like Channelwood Village apartments, the Cascade Plaza office complex, and the very early work on restoring the Ohio Canal downtown.

Ray, who followed Ballard as mayor, says the Republican worked in a non-partisan way, a reason he was re-elected in a predominantly Democratic city. And Tom Sawyer, who followed Ray as mayor, says, as painful as the upheaval in the 60’s and 70’s were, Akron did not struggle against the current - but went with it to become a different type of city.

“As times changed we sought to choose a new future. One of the things that Akron has dome exceedingly well is to do just that.”

Sawyer says Akron is the best managed city in Ohio. And maybe some of that goes back to John Ballard. He died Saturday night at age 89.

Listener Comments:

OH NO!!!!!!

Posted by: John Ballard (Baton Rouge) on May 4, 2012 1:05AM

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