 1922 - 2012 (89 years)
-
| Name |
Adrian Bernstein Fink |
| Prefix |
Judge |
| Suffix |
Jr. |
| Born |
24 Nov 1922 |
| Gender |
Male |
| Occupation |
Attorney |
| Died |
29 Jun 2012 |
- Beachwood-- Adrian B. Fink Jr. represented many defendants in death-penalty cases
and saved all their lives. He was also a state representative, Common Pleas judge, federal prosecutor and lawyer to celebrities.
Fink died Friday, June 29, at home in Beachwood. He was 89.
"Adrian was an extraordinarily bright jurist and lawyer," said long-time partner Lewis Zipkin. "He had little tolerance for ignorance. He didn't tolerate shenanigans. Underneath, he was a warm, loving guy."
Judge Sara J. Harper, retired from the Ohio Court of Appeals, knew Fink from Republican circles. "He was handsome," she said. "He had a definite flair about him. He loved being of service."
In Columbus, according to an autobiographical statement, Fink sponsored the removal of a last racially discriminatory word from the Ohio Constitution. In Washington, D.C., he won the first case under the Communist Front Provisions.
He later spent seven years at the Cuyahoga Court of Common Pleas and many years as a private lawyer, partly handling tax issues and contracts for stars like Sammy Davis Jr. and Kaye Stevens.
His daughter, Ellen Bell, said an IRS auditor once doubted that Fink's many trips to Hollywood were really for business. Then he went to Fink's office and found him watching Stevens tell an interviewer on TV, "I have the best lawyer! He's Adrian Fink of Cleveland."
Fink was born in Cleveland and raised in Atlanta and in Richmond, Va. He became an Eagle Scout and graduated from the University of Virginia at age 19.
He served as a Naval battalion commander at Harvard and earned two battle stars in the Pacific. He was discharged in 1946 as a lieutenant commander and spent many years in the Naval Reserves.
He graduated from Western Reserve University Law School in 1948, married Ruth Wasserman and practiced downtown with her father, Daniel, later a judge of Common Pleas and Ohio Appeals. In his first case, he won a sentence of life instead of the chair for a court-appointed client who'd killed a policeman. Soon he won a place on Ohio's ballot for the Progressive Party, though he opposed
its politics.
In 1950, living near Shaker Square, Fink won an Ohio House seat as a Republican. His Fink Trucking Act required mud guards, raised taxes and boosted penalties for violations such as excess weight. He sponsored an amendment removing race from a provision that had required white men to enroll in the militia. He led passage of a long-stalled proposal for vocational rehabilitation.
In 1952, Fink broadcast the noon news daily for WDOK. In 1953, he left the House for the U.S. Justice Department's criminal division in Washington, D.C. There he proved that a school in New York City was a Communist front.
In 1955, Fink returned to private practice in downtown Cleveland. According to the autobiographical statement, he won 14 straight acquittals in murder cases. He also won a state precedent that a defendant arrested in the middle of a crime could not be charged for his accomplices' later misdeeds.
In 1969, he won a life sentence for Lathan Donald, accused of killing three policemen and a civilian during the Glenville riot. During the seven-week trial, the dapper, red-haired lawyer impressed the jury by wearing a different suit every day.
Fink lost bids for county prosecutor, county commissioner and the U.S. House. In 1970, Gov. James Rhodes put him on the Common Pleas bench. He won elections for the court, resigned in 1975, and lost a bid to return in 1986.
He won many awards from legal groups, including six from the Ohio Supreme Court. He wrote and lectured widely.
He lived at times in University Heights, Cleveland Heights, Gates Mills and Boca Raton, Fla. He golfed at Pine Ridge. He spent many years on the county Republican executive committee.
Fink often quoted the Book of Micah: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
Adrian Bernstein Fink Jr.1922-2012
Survivors:
Wife, the former Ruth Wasserman; daughter, Ellen Bell of Cleveland Heights; two grand sons and two great-grandchil dren.
Funeral:
1:30 p.m. Thursday, Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz, 1985 S. Taylor Rd., Cleveland Heights.
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| Notes |
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| Person ID |
I4597 |
Himelfarb Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
6 Sep 2016 |
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