COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ben Espy, a respected Ohio attorney and former state senator, will be remembered at a ceremony Monday for his decades of service to the state and its capital.
Espy died at the age of 81 on January 4 after a short illness.
Espy, a Democrat, broke racial barriers as the first black person to serve as president of the Columbus City Council for most of the 1980s and as minority leader in the Ohio State Senate from 1991 to 2000. .
Although his hopes of achieving higher office were ultimately dashed, Espy continued to receive honors from members of both parties throughout his career.
Then-Ohio Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann appointed Espy as a top lieutenant in 2007 and chose him in 2009 to lead a high-profile internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in the office. The final report was terrible.
“I don’t think anyone would question Ben Espy’s integrity,” Dann’s spokesman, Leo Jennings, said at the time.
Two years later, Republican Maureen O’Connor invited Espy to give the keynote address at the inauguration of Ohio’s first female chief justice.
Espy’s most sustained efforts were probably in the city of Columbus.
He led the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, now one of the largest in the country, and the Columbus Youth Corps, a program that teaches ethics and professionalism to young people, designated one of President George H. W. Bush’s “Points of Light.” was established. .”
He also created “The Job Show,” a city-produced cable program that helped people find jobs. It was voted America’s best public cable program in 1986 and 1987.
“He was a man of the community,” said daughter Laura Espy-Bell, “and we hear the stories of so many people whose lives were changed because of him.”
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther remembered Espy as “an outstanding leader and advocate” for the city’s residents. U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, who represents Columbus in Congress, said Espy’s legacy “is felt in every corner of the community.”
Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin called Espy “a great politician and a fighter for justice and equality.”
“Ben Espy is the kind of trailblazer whose shoulders many of us now have on our shoulders,” Hardin wrote in X.
Born July 12, 1943, in Nashville, Tennessee, Espy graduated from Sandusky High School in 1961, where he played football and ran track. He was recruited to Woody Hayes’ Ohio State Buckeyes football team, where he played as a running back. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ohio State University in 1965 and a law degree from Howard University in 1968.
Espy began his legal career as a corporate attorney for Allegheny Airlines, then joined the U.S. Air Force, where he served as an assistant staff judge advocate. He returned to Ohio in 1972, first working in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, then establishing his own law practice and eventually entering politics.
He and his wife, Cathy Duffy Espy (who died in 2022), had four daughters and 11 grandchildren. Espy-Bell said her father worked hard to serve the community during the day, but always found time at night to read bedtime stories to his daughters or attend his grandchildren’s soccer games.
Espy was involved in a freak accident in 1984 when a cornice fell on while driving through downtown Columbus, destroying the old building. He lost the lower part of his right leg.
Espy-Bell said her father didn’t allow things like that to slow him down.
“There were two things that helped him get through it,” she said. “One was my mother’s strength in being able to support our family while raising four young daughters. The other was the resilience that allowed my father to come back stronger and better.”
Derrick Clay, president and CEO of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, said Espy’s story “reminds all of us that challenges can be opportunities to have an even greater impact.”
Republican Governor Mike DeWine ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in Espy’s honor on the day of his funeral.
