Harry W. Kessler

Harry W. Kessler (born August 15, 1927 in Toledo , Ohio , † January 2, 2007 in Perrysburg , Ohio) was an American politician of the Democratic Party .

biography

Kessler began his political career when he ran as a candidate for the Democratic Party for the first time unsuccessfully for a seat on the city council of his hometown Toledo in 1961 . His candidacy for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives was just as unsuccessful in 1962 as a renewed candidacy for the city council of Toledo in 1963. In 1965 he was finally elected a member of the city council for the first time and also confirmed in the following election in 1967. In 1969 he was elected vice mayor of his hometown.

After both the previous mayor William J. Ensign and the City Manager William Gross resigned due to the stagnating economy and weak finances, he sat with a narrow majority of 13:11 on the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party Party against his internal party opponent Carol Pietrykowski and thus as his party's candidate for the mayoral elections. In the first ballot that followed, he was clearly defeated by the Republican Party candidate , Howard Cook, with around 7,000 votes. In the necessary second ballot, however, he won against Cook and was thus finally on January 27, 1971 under these exceptional circumstances for the first time mayor ( Mayor ) of Toledo for a two-year term. In both 1973 and 1975 he was re-elected as Mayor and initiated the development of the redesign of the inner city during his tenure. Politically, he appeared when he stood up for Bill Boyle, the then chairman of the Democratic Party in Lucas County , against the allegations of nepotism. In 1977 he did not run for the office of mayor again, citing excessive workload as the reason after he was said to have had too close ties to the editor of the "Toledo Blade" , Paul Block Jr., in the previous 1975 election campaign . Douglas DeGood was succeeded as mayor.

However, in November 1977, he ran successfully as Urkundsbeamter ( Clerk ) of Munizipalgerichts and held this post until 1992. He was most recently from 1979 to 1998 board member of the Public Library of Toledo and Lucas County, as well as 1992 and 1995, still a board member of the school board (Board of Education ) from Toledo.

Web links

• rulers.org
• Mayors of Toledo

• Harry W. Kessler in the database of Find a Grave (English)