Ohio art community mourns loss of Stark County arts advocate
William P. Blair III, one of the biggest advocates for the Ohio arts community and a survivor of a New York City plane crash that killed 27 others, has died. He was 81.
Blair, of Hills and Dales, died early Thursday morning from heart failure at Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital, according to a spokesman for his estate.
Blair, an attorney and lobbyist with McKinley Strategies, a business consulting and lobbying firm in Canton, was a tireless supporter of the arts.
He helped save the Canton Palace Theatre from being demolished; helped establish the National First Ladies' Library in Canton; cofounded the arts advocacy organization Ohio Citizens Committee for the Arts, now CreativeOhio; and lobbied legislators in Columbus and Washington, D.C., for clients such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Blossom Music Center and Akron Art Museum.
He also headed national and state arts advocacy organizations and served on numerous arts boards over the years.
"He lived and breathed those (arts) institutions so for him it was easy to advocate (for them) because it was also inside of him," said Ryan Stenger, the former TimkenSteel vice president of government affairs who cofounded McKinley Strategies. "The Cleveland Museum of Art, he knew every piece of art there. ... That’s why when he went to the legislature he was so successful."
Donna Collins, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council, said Blair, her mentor, is one reason why the council gets about $40 million a year in state dollars in contrast with roughly $2 million in 1976. The council, created by the Ohio legislature in 1965, is a state agency that disburses arts grant funding.
"He was always on message," she said. "He’d sit with the score of whatever was playing at the orchestra and follow along. He would be at a museum and spend a long time in front of (an artistic) work. He understood the intrinsic value of what brings art to people and what fills their soul."
Bill Lemmon: The doctors didn't think he was going to live after plane crash
On March 22, 1992, Blair was on USAir Flight 405 from New York LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland.
The plane stalled seconds after takeoff in snowy conditions. The airline failed to sufficiently de-ice the wings. The plane crashed into the runway, slid into nearby Flushing Bay and came apart. Twenty-seven people died. Blair crawled out of the fuselage after the impact. He was among 24 survivors. He ingested jet fuel and breathed in toxic smoke and suffered second-degree burns to his arms, legs and face.
The Ohio Senate held a moment of silence for him.
One of Blair's closest friends from his Ohio State days, Bill Lemmon, a Stark County developer, immediately went to New York with his wife to see Blair in the hospital.
"The doctors didn't think he was going to live due to the severity of the burns he had," said Lemmon.
However, five days after the crash, Blair, hooked up to a respirator and listening to classical musical, moved his finger as if conducting the orchestra, Lemmon told the Repository then.
Twenty days after the crash, Blair was flown to Akron-Canton Airport in an air ambulance. He was discharged from Aultman Hospital a week later. Blair struggled with anxiety while flying for years.
About four weeks after leaving the hospital, then-Democratic U.S. Sen. John Glenn visited Blair, a former assistant for Glenn's presidential campaign in 1983, at his home.
William Parker Blair III was born in Canton
Willliam Parker Blair III, was born to Edmund and Rachel Blair on Dec. 30, 1941, in Mercy Hospital in Canton.
The Canton Lincoln High School received a bachelor's degree in history and government from Ohio State University in 1964 while working as an Ohio Senate page, a master's degree in public administration in 1967 and his law degree in 1970. In 1973, then-Canton Solicitor Harry Klide hired Blair to be the city's police prosecutor. In 1976, Blair became assistant solicitor and then became a full-time private attorney in 1978.
Friend Gerhardt Zimmermann, conductor of the Canton Symphony Orchestra, said that Blair, an Ohio State Buckeyes fan, always was talking about how great the football team was. How great the coach was.
So Zimmermann in the early 1980s sent Blair a gag Christmas present. A little football, when squeezed that would play the University of Michigan fight song.
“He was so angry at me. I don’t think he talked to me for a month," said Zimmermann.
Gerhardt Zimmermann: 'He cared about the orchestra and he wanted them to make the best music.'
Blair, as an attorney for the Canton Preservation Society and Canton Jaycees, saved the Canton Palace Theatre from being demolished in 1979. He helped draft the documents to establish a nonprofit association that took ownership.
During his more than 46 years on the board of the Canton Symphony Orchestra, Blair worked with board members like Rachel Renkert, who died in 2007, to help transform the orchestra into a reputable, more prestigious institution.
In 1980, Blair, as president-elect of the Canton Symphony Orchestra board, flew to St. Louis to see Zimmermann perform. About a week later, he offered Zimmermann a contract to be the Canton orchestra's music director and conductor.
“He was interested in one thing and that was the artistic quality of the orchestra. And that I loved," said Zimmermann. "He cared about the orchestra and he wanted them to make the best music ... and he was very supportive of me in that.”
Blair had aspired to be a concert pianist after getting piano lessons as a child. He played the organ for Christ Presbyterian Church.
“(Composer Johann) Bach is like God to him," said Zimmermann. "I hope he gets to have conversations with Bach in heaven.”
Blair also advocated for those with special needs.
His sister, Nancy Blair, was a longtime client of the Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities. She died in 2013 at the age of 69. Blair had served on the Stark DD board from 1992 to 1995.
Stenger said Blair, a longtime member of the Ohio State Foundation Board, in 2020 arranged for an avid fan of the Ohio State marching band, Stenger's brother's friend's teen son with autism, to attend a practice of the band along with a Buckeyes game.
Ryan Stenger: He was a relentless advocate
Blair did not take no for an answer.
"He was relentless," Stenger said. "He never stopped advocating for 'we need more money.' ... Everyone who saw him in the halls of the statehouse knew it was coming.”
One of those people was Blair's longtime friend state Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton, a former chairman of the House and Senate Finance committees. Oelslager was a district aide for then-Congressman Ralph Regula when he met Blair sometime in the 1970s.
"Bill always asked for a lot more than he got, but he got a lot. Bill I think operated under the theory 'let’s go for the sky high' request and see how it works out," said Oelslager.
State Sen. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, called Blair a "giant in the arts community." Schuring recalled in 2007 attending the Ohio Art Council's annual luncheon. Blair thanked then-Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders for a record amount of funding for the council.
"At the same time, he said it still wasn't enough and he would be asking for more," Schuring recounted.
Collins said Blair "used to tell me we can never miss an opportunity to deliver a message. A city council person might be the next county commissioner. The next election day, (they) might be in the Ohio Senate."
Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula, Ralph Regula's son, said Blair was his late father's best friend outside of the family. In the early 1970s, Ralph Regula was a state senator. Blair, who had just gotten his law degree from Ohio State, was the executive counsel for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The two collaborated on drafting strip mining regulations.
In 2006, Blair successfully lobbied Congressman Regula for a $750,000 federal earmark for a community recreation center sought by the adjoining First Christian Church.
Richard Regula said that Blair played the organ at the wedding of Richard Regula's sister, Martha Regula. And that Blair successfully lobbied him to approve a hotel bed tax increase to fund grants for local art institutions.
Massillon Municipal Clerk of Court Johnnie Maier, was a Democratic state representative for much of rural Stark County from 1991 to 2000. Maier said to this day he doesn't know what Blair's partisan affiliation was as Blair was good friends with both Democrat and Republican legislative leaders.
Maier recalled the art advocacy days that Blair would help organize. At least since 1979, Blair would arrange for art officials around the state to visit Columbus and meet with their state legislators at an event to push for more state art funding.
Max Barton, the CEO of the Canton Museum of Art, said he met Blair in 1991 when Blair was a guest lecturer at the University of Akron.
“I never met anybody with more advocacy power, more love for the arts, more belief in the arts to transform communities," said Barton. "There won't be anyone else like Bill Blair.
"Bill's going to be missed for his voice for the arts," he added. "It’s going to be up to the rest of us to keep that going.”
Calling hours are Thursday
Blair was not married and did not have children. He is survived by many cousins.
Calling hours will begin at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Blair's longtime church, Christ Presbyterian Church in Canton. Service will be at 1 p.m. A tribute will be held for Blair at Severance Hall in Cleveland at 5 p.m. April 25. Rossi Family Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: William Blair, who helped expand public support of arts, dies at 81
