Robert Z Kaplan

1928 - 2023

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Robert Z. Kaplan, a force in Toledo's legal profession respected for his criminal defense work and well known for his distinctive personality, died Sunday at Otterbein Sunset Village in Sylvania Township. He was 94.

He was being treated for fluctuations in blood pressure, his son, Samuel Kaplan said. A decade ago, he learned he had mild, slowly progressing Parkinson's disease. Back at the office after receiving the news, he dictated a letter to the physician saying he was glad he had the condition, because otherwise, he wouldn't have met the doctor.

"He absolutely believed it. That's why he lived to 94," the younger Mr. Kaplan said on Tuesday. "It was willpower and personality.''

Mr. Kaplan - who was best known as Bobby - went to the office five days a week until the coronavirus pandemic, and then resolved the balance of his cases from the dining room table. But he also recently renewed his law license.

"He was the best of the Toledo legal world," said John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade. "He was an incredible personality. You never forgot him if you met him."

Mr. Kaplan was admitted to the Ohio State Bar Association in 1955 and shared a law office with his father, Samuel G. Kaplan. But he didn't pursue the profession because it was expected of him.

"He would have told you that as a child, he always wanted to be a lawyer," the younger Mr. Kaplan said. "He always found it fascinating. He viewed it as an opportunity to help people."

Early on, he handled a range of criminal, civil, and domestic relations cases. He continued to handle personal injury cases even as he became best known for representing those charged with crimes. He was honored in 1966 by the American Civil Liberties Union in Toledo and northwest Ohio for his work as a volunteer civil rights attorney in Alabama and Louisiana the previous year.

Later, he represented the Black Panther Party in Toledo. In a case that gained wide attention, he represented Panther member John McClellan, who was charged with murder in the 1970 shooting death of Toledo police Officer William Miscannon. The defendant was tried in 1971 and retried in 1972. Each trial ended in a hung jury.

Mr. Kaplan's insistence that the high-profile case be tried in Toledo was an example of his unconventional thinking, said Richard Walinski, a longtime Toledo lawyer, who worked with him on the McClellan case.

"He had a titanic will, and his judgment about what should be pursued and how it should be pursued were more often than not contrary to common wisdom - and inevitably proved correct," Mr. Walinski said. "I am aware of no other lawyer in Toledo who has attained the enduring renown that surrounds Bobby."

To friends and acquaintances, but also to the downcast and corporate executives, he showed kindness and generosity, Mr. Walinski said.

"He was as stunningly insightful, humane, and openhearted as he was legally brilliant," he said.

He was intuitive, said lawyer Jon Richardson, who practiced with him since 1972. "He just knew," Mr. Richardson said.

Mr. Kaplan was an iconoclast, he said.

He had "a bone-deep commitment to the underdog," Mr. Richardson said, "to the person who couldn't look out for or defend himself, the power of the state against somebody who's powerless. That's where Bob said, 'You may get him, but you have to go over me first.'"

Lawyer Fritz Byers was commuting to Toledo in 1982 to work on a prison reform project when he met Mr. Kaplan.

"It is literally true to say I changed my entire life plan and decided to move to Toledo, because I wanted to be where Bobby was," said Mr. Byers, longtime First Amendment attorney for The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"He was the most consequential person in the Toledo legal community in the 40 years I've been here," said Mr. Byers, also Mr. Kaplan's son-in-law since 1985. "He affected countless lawyers in how they think about the law, in how they represent clients. He affected how clients experience the legal system. He affected judges, going back to the McClellan case.

"His combination of brilliance, idiosyncratic thinking, deep knowledge of history, and his pervasive sense of fun combined to make him the most magnetic person I have ever been around," Mr. Byers said.

The younger Mr. Kaplan said: "He gathered strength from socialization. He was never happier than at the office. He wanted to be a part of the world."

As viewed on the street or in the courtroom, he cut a memorable figure.

"The socks wouldn't match. The shoes wouldn't match," said the younger Mr. Kaplan, who practiced law with him for 30 years. "He only cared about the things that mattered. Does the color of the suit matter? He was an advocate in the court. It was the words he used, not his shirt-tie ensemble.

"My interest from earliest memory to Sunday night is I wanted to be with him and around him," the younger Mr. Kaplan said. "There was nothing like being in his company. It would be intellectual, insightful. It would be zany. I wanted to be a witness to him, and that I was."

He was born Nov. 16, 1928, to Ethel and Samuel Kaplan. He grew up on Birckhead Place in North Toledo and was a 1946 graduate of Scott High School.

He was a graduate of Ohio State University, from which he received his law degree. He interrupted his law studies to enlist in the Army and served in what was then West Germany during the Korean War.

The former Lambertville resident received the Distinguished Toledo Attorney Award from the University of Toledo Law Alumni Association in 2000.

Surviving are his wife, the former Ann Guerin, whom he married in July, 1966; daughters Katherine Byers and Sarah Kaplan; son, Samuel Z. Kaplan; sister, Mary Bloch, and eight grandchildren.

Arrangements are by Cremation Society of Toledo. Memorial services will be held later.