Dr. Stanley M. Kaplan

Dr. Stanley M. Kaplan, one of the region's most prominent arts donors and honored as a Great Living Cincinnatian in 2007, died Thursday at Christ Hospital after a long illness. He was 89.

He and his wife Mickey, who died in 2003, had key roles in shaping many of Greater Cincinnati's arts and culture, and educational institutions and social service agencies through donations of tens of millions of dollars and hands-on leadership.

Dr. Kaplan, of Amberley Village, was also applauded for the almost 60 years he spent at the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience and the College of Medicine.

To those who knew him, Dr. Kaplan was a man with tireless curiosity, the soul of an artist and deep generosity. He embraced new adventures until the final months of his life.

Dr. Kaplan served as a board member of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Taft Museum, CET, ArtsWave (formerly the Fine Arts Fund), Cincinnati Ballet, Playhouse in the Park, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the Park Board, the Cincinnati Arts Association and the Walnut Hills High School Alumni Foundation.

He was a leader in the effort to build the Zaha Hadid-designed Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, which opened in 2003 at Sixth and Walnut streets, Downtown. The New York Times called it "the most important American building to be completed since the end of the Cold War."

"Stan was the most enthusiastic, the most supportive, the most strategic early leader," said Charles Desmarais, former director of the center and currently president of the San Francisco Art Institute.

It was one of many building projects the Kaplans supported, including the Cincinnati Ballet's performance hall; the most recent renovation of Playhouse in the Park; and the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The latter's Jarson-Kaplan Theater is named in honor of the Kaplans and Mickey Kaplan's parents.

Dr. Kaplan had a great interest in architecture, but, Desmarais pointed out, "Stan adored everything. He had a broad range of interests and a hunger to know everything.

"He wrote short stories, he painted watercolors, he took up photography. He was fascinated by the creative impulse."

The Cincinnati native graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1940 and in 1946 completed his medical training in psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He became a resident in psychiatry and later received training in psychoanalysis at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

In 1948, at Jewish Hospital, he met his wife-to-be, who was volunteering in the gift shop while on break from classes at UC.

They were married for 53 years, and had three children.

"Both he and my mom had this uncanny ability to make people comfortable," said their daughter, Barbara Kaplan Chilcote, a pediatric physician at the Cleveland Clinic. "It was fun to see how they were magnets for lots of people for lots of really good reasons, but mostly because of their warmth, caring, compassion and generosity."

In 1954, Dr. Kaplan joined the faculty of UC's Department of Psychiatry, where he became a full professor and also served as interim chairman of the department.

During his career at UC, he was involved not only in patient care and teaching but also in research. He published widely on a range of topics in psychiatry, particularly for studies in psychosomatic medicine.

Dr. Kaplan also served as chairman of G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers Inc., based in Deerfield Township, ranked 19th on the 2010 Deloitte Cincinnati USA 100 listing of the largest privately held businesses in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

After his wife's death, Dr. Kaplan established the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize to support production of new plays at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

"Stan had the soul of an artist," said Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Ed Stern. "It's too easy to simply talk about him as a philanthropist. That doesn't capture the man."

Dr. Kaplan combined his passions for psychiatry and theatre and for almost 20 years regularly created psychoanalytic character profiles for plays for Playhouse in the Park as well as Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Dr. Kaplan's interests were many. He enjoyed motorcycle riding and logged thousands of miles crossing the continental U.S. and Canada on his touring Honda Gold Wing. As late as the '90s, on Contemporary Arts Center exhibit opening nights, Kaplan's was one of a dozen motorcycles parked outside the entrance on Sixth Street.

He also was a painter, sculptor and photographer. His first photography exhibit was in January 2006 at the Phyllis Weston and Annie Bolling Gallery in Oakley. "These are beautifully printed and artfully composed images of walls, back streets and alleys, and buildings that have a painterly feel," The Enquirer reported in a review.

He was a member of a weekly poker game for decades and invested in Broadway shows and race horses. He owned thoroughbred horses with his son Steve. In 2008, Racecar Rhapsody, which Dr. Kaplan owned with Jerry Carroll, Ronald Plattner and Mark Guilfoyle, made it to the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and the Triple Crown's Preakness Stakes, finishing fourth in both races.

His longtime friend and business partner in ventures ranging from cars and boats to investments and real estate was Ted Schwartz, 88, of East Walnut Hills. They met when Schwartz was 10 and Dr. Kaplan was 11.

"In all those years, there was never one disagreement between us," Schwartz said. "That's pretty unique."

Dr. Kaplan also was a devoted grandfather to his two grandsons, Jeffrey and Michael Chilcote, making a point to talk to each of them at least once each week of their lives, Barbara Chilcote said.

Dr. Kaplan's many honors include the Glorifying the Lion Award from the Urban League; the Visionary Award from the Contemporary Arts Center; the Governor's Award in the Arts; the PBS Public TV Leadership Award; and the Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati's Apple Award, which recognized Dr. Kaplan's contributions to improving the built environment of Greater Cincinnati. Dr. and Mrs. Kaplan were co-recipients of the Ohio Governor's Award for the Arts in 2000 in the philanthropy category.

Dr. Kaplan remained modest throughout his life. In response to his Great Living Cincinnatian honor, he said, "I was overwhelmed at being chosen."

His daughter said that to her, he will always be "Mr. Cincinnati."

"He felt so proud to be personally involved," she said, "but he also was very proud of what Cincinnati has become."

Other survivors include a brother, Calvin Kaplan; two sons, Steve Kaplan of Fairfield Township and Richard Kaplan of Columbus, both officers in G & J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers; and his companion, Joyce Elkus.

Services will be 11 a.m. Monday at Isaac M. Wise Temple, 720 Plum St., Downtown. Visitation begins at 10 a.m.

Memorials: ArtsWave, 20 East Central Parkway, Suite 200, Cincinnati, OH 45202; or charity of one's choice.

By Jackie Demaline / jdemaline@enquirer.com