Dave Lieberth
2019 Recipient of the Bert M. Polsky Humanitarian Award
Civic leader, broadcast journalist, lawyer, civic activist
Interviewed by Josh Gippin in 2019
Interview Questions:
Tell us a little about your family history – your grandparents’ immigration to the U.S. and to this area.
Tell us about your parents, your childhood, your education, and early interest in current affairs and local history, your natural proclivity for public speaking.
What values did you learn from your parents, your faith leaders, teachers, and other mentors, that have had a lasting impact on your life?
Tell us about your college career at the University of Akron. Leadership opportunities there. WAUP, the campus radio station. Documenting the history of the Ohio Canal system.
Meeting Lynne Moffatt at the University News Service. Courting, marrying, and having children with Lynne.
Tell us about your first job working for WHLO. Your first night on the job: July 20, 1968 – 6th day of the Wooster Ave Riots.
You got your master’s degree from Syracuse. So you were in Syracuse on May 4, 1970, at the time of the Kent State shootings. Tell about your return to Akron and covering the trial of the “Kent 25.”
You came back to Akron after graduation and returned to WHLO. Talk about how you went from radio journalist to lawyer. Tell us about a couple of your award-winning radio programs: “Inside the Grand Jury” and “A Decision Away from Death” and about your role in opening Ohio courtrooms to media cameras.
You were a co-founder of Leadership Akron, served on its Board of Trustees for 20 years, and have presented at every one of its classes. Why was this important to you and what do you tell them in those classes?
Talk about your work with the Summit County Historical Society. You joined the board at 32 as its youngest member and served as president, developed its endowment and opened its first new museum in 40 years, directed the monumental Marking of the Trail of the Portage Path, chaired the Centeseptequinary, coordinated over 40 events.
Talk about your work as an attorney, focusing on child advocacy and domestic relations.
Tell us about your daughters, Emma and Kate. Tell about how Kate sparked your interest in dance which eventually led to the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival.
Talk about your time working as Deputy Mayor for Don Plusquellic from 2002-2012.
Tell us about some of the initiatives you’ve been involved with to revitalize downtown Akron. National Inventors’ Hall of Fame, Master of Ceremonies at many events, Lock 3 and Lock 4 programming, Downtown Akron Partnership. How is the future looking for downtown Akron?
Talk about Akron’s growth during your lifetime and career. Key qualities that are responsible for Akron’s development.
You directed Imagine.Akron.2025 around 2000. How about 2050? Talk about the challenges facing the city/community now and in the future. How do you see the community rising to meet the challenges facing us?
