Robert Landgraf

Robert J. R.J. Landgraf died on Sunday, May 15, 2011. R.J. joined Fairmount Presbyterian Church on February 15, 1959. He served as a Deacon in the 60's and a Trustee in the 1970's. He was President of the Board of Trustees his third year. He was recently inducted into the Elders Association in 2008 after a few years on Session, and served as an Usher, Sunday School Teacher and a member of the Worship Council and Personnel Committee for several years. R.J. also served as Trustee of the Cleveland Rotary Club Mr. Landgraf was the retired Secretary-Treasurer Chief Fiscal Officer of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, from 1982 to 1989, reporting directly to the ten-member Transit Board. In this position he was responsible for administering the work of the Board, preparing all legislation and records of its meetings. He managed the investments of the Authority, which attained a level $100 million. He arranged for underwriting and administered all debts of the Authority, and supervised all banking relationships. He took early retirement in a buyout plan which, with a reorganization taking place concurrently, encouraged many executives and nearly everyone else eligible to retire. From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Landgraf served as Executive Staff Assistant to the General Manager, he worked on a wide variety of projects such as planning rail car fleet sizes, configurations, and specifications; research for labor contract negotiations; preparation of prospectuses for incurring long-term debt; writing all speeches and position papers for the General Manager. At the formation of the Regional Transit Authority in 1975, Mr. Landgraf became Superintendent of Rapid Transit Operations with operating responsibility for both the former Shaker Heights Light Rail Lines and the former Cleveland Transit System Heavy Rail Line. In the two years at that post, he melded together two very different rail transit operations with clashing cultures in a difficult environment. In 1973, Mr. Landgraf became the last General Manager of the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit in many ways the prototype of today's modern light rail systems, owned by the City of Shaker Heights, successfully negotiating for its inclusion in the new Regional Transit Authority on the basis of commitment to complete reconstruction and a new greatly improved car fleet. He was co-author of a very detailed Transfer Agreement which gave the Shaker Heights residents and riders all they could possibly wish, resulting in a favorable 89 percent vote in Shaker Heights on the county one-percent sales tax establishing and funding the RTA county-wide vote was 71 percent in favor. During this time, he led a Citizens Transportation Committee of Shaker Heights through a careful process of evaluating six alternatives for the future of their "Rapid Transit", resulting in the decision to go for a totally modernized light rail system. From 1966 to 1973, Mr. Landgraf served as Chief Engineer of the Shaker System, in effect the Assistant General Manager. The elected Mayor served part-time as the General Manager. He was charged with the responsibility of operating the light rail lines from fare box revenues while at the same time carrying on a maintenance program to keep the system alive until a better alternative for its ownership developed. He modernized the electrical supply system during that time with two new solid-state substations paid for out of maintenance reserves. Before 1966, Mr. Landgraf was a consulting industrial engineer with a major accounting firm and served as a manufacturing industrial engineer in two Cleveland companies. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. He was a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio. Mr. Landgraf has served on peer review panels for light rail projects in Sacramento and Portland, and for a proposed system in Austin. He participated in a three-person consulting team advising SEPTA and the City of Philadelphia about the ultimate fate of their remaining surface trolley lines. Since 1974, Mr. Landgraf had been heavily involved in committee work of the Transportation Research Board. He authored four published papers on light rail transit planning and operations topics. From 1982 to 1987, he was chairman of TRB's Subcommittee on Light Rail Transit and from 1987 to 1992 was chairman of the Committee on Rail Transit Systems, on which he was one of the longest serving members. In 1985, Mr. Landgraf was chairman of TRB's Fourth National Conference on Light Rail Transit, held in Pittsburgh. Due to family logistics, a Service of Witness to the Resurrection is not expected to be held until October. Our sympathy and love surround R.J.'s family and friends. During this time of sorrow let us hold on to the promises of the gospel: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid".


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