Medina says goodbye to Ken Cleveland

MEDINA — A warm demeanor and deep-seated desire to improve his community are just a couple traits friends used this week to describe Ken Cleveland, who died Monday. For more than a half-century, Cleveland functioned as one of Medina County's most successful philanthropists and housing developers. He was 87. Cleveland was responsible for building a number of Medina streets located off of Sturbridge Drive between South Court Street and Wadsworth Road, work that took place in the late-1970s. Around that same time, he donated 12-acres of land in that area to the city, which was named in his honor as Ken Cleveland Park. Other construction projects taken on by his company, Ken Cleveland Builders, took place across Brunswick, Hinckley Township and Marblehead. It's believed that Ken Cleveland Builders constructed roughly 300 homes annually across northeast Ohio during the 1970s. Work also eventually branched out to Florida, where the company erected roughly 800 condominiums. "I was a paper boy growing up, ironically for The Gazette, in neighborhoods where Mr. Cleveland was developing," Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell said. "I remember seeing his name and signs everywhere and you got a real sense that the town was on the rise, and it was easy to tell it was because of people like him. "In the times we ran into each other since, it was always apparent how committed he was to Medina County. Through my years with the police and now with the city, we crossed paths often. I know he was a very generous man who cared deeply about the well-being of people." Cleveland was a relative of Gen. Moses Cleaveland, who in 1796 founded the city that's bears his name — albeit with a slightly different spelling. He and his wife Patricia established the Ken Cleveland Foundation in the 1980s to make charitable donations to organizations including the Medina Hospital Foundation and the Cleveland Clinic. That venture led to a $4 million donation in 2013 that went toward construction of the Cleveland Clinic's Brunswick Family Health Center. The 24,000-square foot facility's front entrance was stamped with Cleveland's name as a means to express gratitude for the huge gesture. Cleveland was 81 when he made the donation and at the time said the region was "blessed to have the clinic," where he was treated for bladder cancer. George Matsko, a Medina resident who retired in 2017 after a 47-year career with Cleveland Builders, reflected on his long-time boss' way of making employees feel like more than just a cog in a wheel. "I continued going to the office after I retired just to talk to Ken up until he got too sick to keep working," he said. "We had a nice journey together. We had a big company with as many as 105 employees at one time. We had to lay off a lot of people in the early-80s when interest rates were high and everything was down. That really hurt him. He knew what that took away from them. "When the market came back up, he hired back the same people. There was never a doubt in his mind that he wanted to do that or that he was going to try and cut back to save money. He wanted those people back because that's what kind of person he was. Everyone knew it. I'm going to miss him very much along with a lot of other people." Cleveland's family has encouraged donations in his memory to St. Jude Research Hospital at 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tenn. 38105. Contributions can also be made online. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.