Swirsky was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, the son of a Jewish postal worker. He spent summers playing baseball on the dirt fields behind Boulevard Elementary and catching frogs and snakes in Cain Park, running home just long enough to clear his dinner plate.
Rich Swirsky, Rebecca Jenkins and their children, Sarah and David, photographed at Mustard Seed Market. (Photo by Shane Wynn)
‘One of the best’: the life and legacy of Ward 1 Councilmember Rich Swirsky BY H.L. COMERIATO, TDS STAFF REPORTER PHOTOS BY SHANE WYNN AND H.L. COMERIATO
R
ich Swirsky knew a good thing when he saw one.
Especially when the good thing was simple: his family at the dinner table on an ordinary weeknight, the crack of a bat when the bases are loaded, the way a Dylan record sounds through the perfect set of speakers. “He was really good at being present,” says Sarah, Swirsky’s oldest. “Even before he got sick,” she adds. “He would just soak it all in.”
patience, pride and a deep sense of personal responsibility. Swirsky belonged not only to his wife and children, but to the larger world — to his community, his friends, his faith and his convictions. On May 26, just before the milkweed bloomed, he died of Acute Myeloid Leukemia in his own home, surrounded by family. Four months later, those closest to him both grieve the loss of their father, husband, colleague and friend, and look to celebrate a life and legacy poised to long outlast a single generation. ‘He was just always there.’
On the front porch of his Highland Square home, Swirsky’s family looks out over a lawn planted with milkweed. He and his son, David, designed their devil strip to attract native pollinators and boost the neighborhood’s biodiversity. “We’re along the Monarch migration trail,” says Rebecca Jenkins, Swirsky’s wife and partner of 35 years. “So this gives them a place to stop and rest.” In 2013, Swirsky’s life as an educator, organizer, father, coach and public servant culminated in his campaign to represent Ward 1 as a member of Akron City Council. He won the seat and represented Ward 1 residents for eight years with
18 | The Devil Strip
“One of the best things about Rich is how he loved his family,” says Swirsky’s friend and Ward 1 resident Karen Edwards.
As a student at Ohio University, he immersed himself in organizing. He read Marx, studied Mao and joined the Attica Brigade — a radical student-led, antiimperialist organization. In his time at OU, Swirsky developed a set of personal politics and beliefs rooted in social, economic and racial justice. During his final semester, he and fellow student organizers lobbied the school’s administration to serve exclusively union-picked fruits and vegetables in the campus cafeteria. The group even hosted iconic United Farm Workers of America organizer Cesar Chavez, who spoke on campus. When School officials ruled against the change, organizers occupied an administrative building. Police arrived to make arrests, but Swirksy refused to leave. Telling the story, his family shares a soft laugh of recognition: the spirit and conviction Swirsky possessed as a long-haired college student in the late 1970s remained with him for the rest of his life.
years later, at a street protest in Middlebury, he met Jenkins face to face for the first time. Occasionally, Swirsky would tell his friend and Ward 1 constituent Karen Edwards the story: “He’d say, ‘Have I ever told you how I met Becky?’ And I’d say, ‘Yes, Rich. But you can go ahead and tell me again.’” Swirsky and Jenkins put down roots in Akron, and Swirsky spent the next 20 years directing campaigns for Ohio Citizen Action. While raising a young family, he championed workers’ rights and campaigned in support of dozens of environmental causes, including the passage of the Superfund bill. By the 1990s, he was back in school earning a Masters of Education, while teaching after-school nature classes to middle schoolers. As a teacher, coach and counsellor, he kept an eye on students who seemed to struggle. When he was with young people, Swirsky was patient, attentive, funny and kind. “He was a good listener,” David says. “He just knew how to relate to you and almost draw out what you needed to hear, or what you needed to get done… He was very intuitive.” At home in Highland Square, Swirsky launched the city’s first recycling pilot program, and was instrumental in preventing Taco Bell from developing a plot of land at the corner of North Portage Path and West Market Street. Instead, the spot became a beloved community garden, and then the locally-owned Mustard Seed Market.
A home in Akron
‘It was about community’
In 1979, Swirsky took a job as the Akron Area Director for Ohio Citizens Action and moved to Akron. Two
Above all else, Swirsky understood the power of collective joy and shared experience.
By all accounts, Swirsky nourished Jenkins and their children. He laughed with them, cooked for them, protected them and supported their every talent and endeavor. He coached every little league baseball team David ever played on, and when Sarah chose theater over softball in elementary school, he became a supportive theater dad, too. “He was at every single show,” Sarah says. “He was so supportive of me in that way.” October 2021 · Vol 9 · Issue #10
Swirsky leads a neighborhood bike ride through Ward 1. (Photo by Shane Wynn)
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