Seth Chase Taft (December 31, 1922 – April 14, 2013) was an American politician of the
Republican party and a grandson of President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
.
Early life and education
Seth Chase Taft's paternal grandfather was President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
. His parents were
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
mayor
Charles Phelps Taft II and Eleanor Chase Taft, whose father ran the
Waterbury Clock Company. Taft had five sisters and one brother and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He married Frances "Franny" Prindle from New Haven, Connecticut.
Career
Taft was an unsuccessful candidate for the
Ohio Senate in 1962. He ran for the office of the
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
in 1967, losing to
Democratic candidate
Carl B. Stokes, the first
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
mayor of a major city.
In 1982, Taft sought the Republican nomination for
governor of Ohio
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...
, but he lost the primary race to
Clarence J. "Bud" Brown Jr. He was, however, a
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Cuyahoga County ( or , see ) is a large urban County (United States), county located in the Northeast Ohio, northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. The county seat and most populous city is Cleveland. As of the 2020 United States census, ...
Commissioner. Seth and Franny Taft had three sons: Frederick I. Taft, Thomas P. Taft, and Seth T. Taft, and a daughter, Cynthia Taft.
Seth Taft served as Cuyahoga County Commissioner from 1971 to 1978. He died on April 14, 2013, at his home in
Pepper Pike, Ohio, after a fall at 90 years old. His wife Franny died four years later, at 95. They are survived by 4 children, 10 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren.
See also
*
Taft family
*Self-published autobiographical essay: ''Take On the World! And See How Much You Learn!'' Seth Taft, December 1998
Notes
1922 births
2013 deaths
Taft family
Politicians from Cincinnati
County commissioners in Ohio
Ohio Republicans
20th-century Ohio politicians
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