Rodney Verne Coleman

Rodney Coleman of Shaker Heights, was born on June 6, 1932, to James Andrew Coleman and Dorothy Holliday Coleman, in Columbus, Ohio. He was raised in Cleveland, OH, where he attended public schools and graduated from John Adams High School. He then attended The Ohio State University, where he obtained Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor Degrees. 

In 1955, while pursuing his education, Rodney married fellow Ohio State Buckeye, Audrey Jean Woodson. Together they began a journey of 68 years of marriage. Six days after receiving his law degree in 1957, their daughter Laura Dawn was born. With diploma in hand, a wife and child, he returned to the Cleveland area where he had no job offers. When legal recruiters had visited campus to interview students for employment, he and the only other Black graduate in his class were not even interviewed because in the 1950s law firms and corporations were not hiring Black attorneys. Rodney chose the only option open to him; he decided to go into private practice. 

Undaunted by the racial climate of the times which made suitable office space unavailable to him, Rodney made the decision to build a small office building on property his father owned near University Circle. He had some building experience, having worked on construction jobs during college summer breaks. While Audrey supported the family teaching elementary school, Rodney completed the construction of the building in a year. He hung his shingle, and practiced general law, from family and divorce, to criminal and real estate, with an emphasis on civil rights law.

In 1960, Rodney and Audrey purchased a home in the newly integrating Ludlow neighborhood of Shaker Heights. His practice flourished. The young couple welcomed a son, Alan (Al) David, in 1964. During this time, Rodney and Audrey began investing in apartment buildings, which Rodney managed while continuing his law practice. Increasingly enjoying real estate management, it began to take more of his time, and in the late seventies he decided to leave the practice of law and focus on their real estate full time, leaving behind writing briefs and meeting court deadlines. For the next twenty years he managed their buildings, including performing all maintenance and repairs. His love of animals led Rodney to start feeding feral neighborhood cats around his buildings, which he continued to do, well after retirement, every morning, seven days a week, in all weather, until a year ago when his health prevented him from continuing.

Rodney was a true renaissance man with many interests, talents, abilities and hobbies: vintage cars, home and landscape design and decorating, art and travel, to name a few. He loved art and had attended classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art as a child. After retiring from law, he found time to pursue his artistic passion. Many of his pieces-pencil and pen drawings, watercolors and wood carvings-are displayed in the family home. His love of vintage cars led to a small collection of cars which he enjoyed working on, restoring, washing and polishing. With much sadness he sold his cars last year with the exception of his beloved Jag. Rodney’s love of travel led him to take the family all over the United States, Canada and Europe, 7 countries and 34 states in total. He found the Southwest United States to be the most interesting and beautiful of their travel destinations, so much so that he spent three summers exploring the Southwest.

The home into which the family moved in 1966 and in which Rodney lived for 58 years until his death, became his greatest passion. Inside he was the plumber, the electrician, the painter, the wallpaperer, and outside he was the cement mixer, the brick layer, the wall builder and the caretaker of his yard.  His creativity included building a beautiful veranda on the back of the house, remodeling the kitchen twice, building two bedroom coffered ceilings, designing and building a decorative fireplace in the living room and laying a beautiful brick driveway apron. Rodney vowed he would never leave the family home, even when his family attempted to persuade him to downsize. 

Rodney died peacefully on June 23, 2024, at the age of 92, at The Hospice of Western Reserve. He is survived by his wife, Audrey; daughter Laura Williams and her husband Paul, New Albany, OH and Chicago, IL: son Al and his wife Kathy, Brimfield, OH; grandson Scott Williams and his wife Veronika, Chicago, IL: grandson Ryan Williams, Brooklyn, NY: and great grandson Ivan Coleman Williams, Chicago, IL.

Contributions may be made in Rodney’s name to the Cleveland Animal Protection League or The Hospice of the Western Reserve.

A private Celebration of Life will be held at a date to be determined.