SIEGEL, RICHARD H. (21 Dec. 1935-31 Aug. 1993) was a Cleveland attorney whose civic activism included included the establishment of the alternative newspaper, the Cleveland Free Times. A native Clevelander, son of Dr. Samuel and Kathleen Marshall Siegel, he graduated from Cleveland Hts. High School and took a degree from Western Reserve Univ. (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY) in 1957. He earned his law degree from the Univ. of Chicago in 1960, the year he married the former Madeleine (Mimsy) Ross, and established a successful Cleveland law practice specializing in labor arbitration. During the 1960s Siegal helped organize several Cleveland visits by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and became active as a fund raiser for presidential candidates. He helped direct the Ohio presidential campaign for Sen. Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and attended the 1980 Democratic convention as a supporter of Sen. Ted Kennedy. A resident of PEPPER PIKE, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for that suburb's council in 1967 on a platform challenging discriminatory housing patterns. Siegel was elected president of the CITIZENS LEAGUE OF GREATER CLEVELAND in 1976. He opposed tax abatement for the Gateway sports complex as harmful for the CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. After the demise of the CLEVELAND EDITION, Siegel started the weekly Free Times in Sept. 1992 primarily to provide a forum for points of view that otherwise might have gone unheard. The paper continued, after his death in New Mexico, under the direction of his wife and 4 surviving sons: Randy, Peter, Michael, and William.
Last Modified: 22 Jul 1997 02:24:23 PM- Related Article(s)