Kenneth McGovern

Kenneth W. McGovern was one of a cadre of bright young idealists who came to Cleveland to help rebuild the city after the election of Carl Stokes as mayor. Like many of his colleagues from that era, he stayed on in his adopted city and continued his community development work for the rest of his life. As the City's executive assistant for neighborhood planning and development from 1968 to 1972, McGovern had a strong hand in reforming and managing programs aimed at improving conditions in the inner city. "Ken worked with several directors to transform the city's discredited Urban Renewal Departmenta�"which had destroyed or destabilized several Cleveland neighborhoods a�"into a neighborhood-focused Community Development Department that partnered with residents and businesses to stabilize and revitalize the city's neighborhoods," said former Cleveland planning director Hunter Morrison, a longtime friend and colleague. "He was instrumental in managing the city's transition from urban renewal to neighborhood development and for pioneering efforts to develop new market-rate housing in neighborhoods that prior administrations had been willing to write off and bulldoze in the name of 'massive urban renewal.' " The New York-raised, Harvard-educated McGovern "had to learn about Glenville, Hough, Central, Fairfax, and so many more," said Willis "Bill" Boyer, a Stokes administration colleague who worked on downtown development. "He quickly came to know the councilmen, ward heelers, church leaders, and just about anyone else who mattered in each neighborhood. He earned respect the old-fashioned way - by keeping his word and his promises, and never flinching from telling the truth. Most of all, he was insightful about people who lived in the city. He understood their hurt and their anger, their hopes and needs." After four years at City Hall, McGovern became vice president of community development for University Circle, Inc. and subsequently president of Doan Center, Inc., a planning and development entity adjacent to University Circle. In both positions, he brokered deals to attract public and private investment to ravaged neighborhoods, culminating in such projects as the Church Square Shopping Center, Beacon Place townhouses, Martin Luther King Plaza, and housing for the elderly. While at UCI, he also advocated for the preservation of the Hessler Road neighborhood, a unique residential enclave in the midst of the CWRU campus that had been slated for demolition. He was an early proponent connecting downtown with University Circle via convenient mass transit and had a "visionary" approach to the redevelopment of the Midtown area between the two, said Margaret Murphy, founding director of MidTown Cleveland. "Devoted to a strong belief that neighborhoods must be renewed for the benefit of those who live and work there, not cleared for the benefit of outside investors, he had a remarkable ability to bridge the gulf between the very poor and the very wealthy," said former Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Burt W. Griffin, a friend since the Stokes administration. "He achieved that goal by never losing sight of what was practical and helping outsiders and residents to recognize their mutual self-interests." McGovern's professional and volunteer activities included leadership roles or board service with the Urban Land Institute, Neighborhood Housing Services, National City Community Development Corporation, Leadership Cleveland, Shaker Heights Planning Commission, Shaker Heights Public Library, Midtown Cleveland, Shaker Square Area Development Corporation, and the Federation for Community Planning. In addition to his many professional accomplishments, McGovern was most proud of his children and grandchildren for whom he loved to cook and mark celebrations in grand style. The family's annual gathering in Cape Cod each summer, a tradition carried on for more than 40 years, was a highlight of his life. He and his wife, Mary Lynne, have three children and eight grandchildren. The family will receive friends from 4-6 p.m. on Tuesday, November 27, at Brown-Forward Funeral Home, 17022 Chagrin Boulevard, Shaker Heights. A funeral mass will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 28, at the Church of St. Dominic, 19000 Van Aken Blvd,, Shaker Heights. The family suggests memorial contributions to the MAC Fund of the Shaker Schools Foundation, 15600 Parkland Drive, Shaker Heights, OH 44120, or to the Shaker Heights Public Library, Attn.: Director, 16500 Van Aken Blvd., Shaker Heights, OH 44120. Born: January 8, 1939 in New York, New York Died: November 22, 2012, in Cleveland Ohio, of complications related to a long illness Spouse: Mary Lynne McGovern, Shaker Heights, Ohio Children: William Francis McGovern II, Hong Kong; Julia McGovern Voyzey, Shaker Heights, Ohio; Kristin McGovern Sonne, Bethesda, Maryland. Grandchildren: Jacob, Katherine, and Nicholas Voyzey, Shaker Heights, Ohio; William, Olivia, and Matthew Sonne, Bethesda, Maryland; Jack and Charlotte McGovern, Hong Kong.


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