From Crain's Akron Business: Though Hardy and Dodson are both officially out of government, for now at least, leaders of the city and county say they and others still rely on the former chiefs of staff for counsel on a variety of issues and important decisions.
Retired Akron politician and longtime public servant Ray Kapper died in his sleep at his Florida home over the weekend. He was like a combination of a second father slash cool, older brother that I never had, said former Mayor Don Plusquellic, who told the Beacon Journal that he visited his old friend last week in Seminole, Florida, near Clearwater.
Kapper was born in 1937. He grew up in Akron and was elected to City Council in the 1970s. Then Mayor Tom Sawyer, who had yet to run for Congress, appointed Kapper public service director in 1984. Kapper stayed in that position through the first five years of Plusquellic s administration.