10-term Republican state representative seen as a ‘maverick’
John A. Galbraith, a lawyer, business owner, and 10-term Republican state representative whose independent views made headlines, died Dec. 21 in Mc- Laren St. Luke’s Hospital, Mau- mee. He was 98.
He had congestive heart failure and had tested positive for coronavirus, son John Michael Galbraith said.
Mr. Galbraith, a longtime Maumee resident, owned Seaway Construction Co., which he started in the 1960s to build and operate apartment complexes, and a separate property rental business. He earlier had been a business partner of developer Jerry Sawicki and was an executive of Community Sanitation Inc.
He was president of the Lucas County Young Republican Club in the early 1960s when Ohio Attorney General William Saxbe — later a U.S. senator and U.S. attorney general — appointed him an assistant state attorney general in Toledo to handle workers’ compensation cases.
Mr. Galbraith ran unsuccessfully for state representative in 1964. He ran and won in 1966 and was re-elected nine times.
“He was proud to work with a group of people he called true friends, regardless of party,” his son said. “He felt he made a strong contribution to what Ohio is today.”
In his first days as a legislator, Mr. Galbraith introduced bills to toughen gun sales laws, extend the 1-cent sales tax to purchases costing 11 cents or more, and change the tax reciprocity system among municipalities.
He offered a bill to broaden the state’s abortion law — a quest he continued until the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision on abortion rights. In 1972, after the House rejected his bill, Mr. Galbraith noted that half the states had changed their abortion laws, and that Ohio’s law discriminated against poor people because “any woman with means can get an abortion” by traveling to another state or country.
He took heat from other quarters for proposals to rescind Ohio’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and to provide a cash benefit to mothers under age 30 receiving welfare if they got a Medicaid-funded tubal ligation.
Tom Lindeman of The Blade’s Columbus bureau wrote in 1975: “In a political arena filled with yes-men, Maumee’s Republican Rep. John Galbraith is a loner. Although he votes ‘no’ with more regularity than any other of the 99 House members, no one is ever in doubt where he stands or the reason for his opposition.”
“I do take it all seriously, and I don’t want to be considered a kook,” Mr. Galbraith said then. “I like to think I speak out clearly and intelligently.”
He was so frustrated with what wasn’t getting done by the legislature, his son said, he believed his proposals were as valid as anything else introduced.
“My mother always referred to my father as a bit of a maverick,” his son said. “He was probably what one would consider an Eisenhower or an Everett Dirksen Republican — an old-school Republican.”
Some proposals made news beyond Ohio. In 1977, he sponsored a bill to abolish January and February and instead make June, July, and August into 51-day months.
“In reality the bill makes as much sense as many others relating to the energy crisis and is as constructive as many of the laws enacted by the General Assembly and by the Congress,” Mr. Galbraith said in 1977. The next year, he introduced a bill to eliminate inflation by outlawing “cheaper money” and making “hard-earned dollars” the only acceptable currency for commercial transactions, including Ohio State University football tickets.
In 1986, he proposed raising the 55-mph speed limit to 60 mph — certain to fail because it would cost Ohio millions in federal highway funds. The bill got wide attention and, when asked if that was why he introduced it during campaign season, he replied: “Oh, no, I do this stuff all the time, no matter what the season.”
He was defeated in 1986 and four years later organized the group Republicans For Choice, which endorsed Democratic candidate Anthony Celebrezze, Jr., for governor, who supported abortion rights, instead of GOP nominee George Voinovich.
“He saw the Republican Party being hijacked by the evangelical right. He was concerned about this,” said his son, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat in 2018 against U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green).
John Allen Galbraith was born Aug. 23, 1923, and grew up in the Old West End and in Ottawa Hills. He was a member of Ottawa Hills High School’s first graduating class in 1941.
He attended Ohio State before taking part in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Michigan. He was a lieutenant commander aboard a destroyer escort in the Atlantic and then the South Pacific. He was recalled to service to the Korean War aboard a destroyer escort in the eastern Pacific.
He received a law degree from UM and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1949. Afterward, he was based in Cincinnati with the legal department of the former Electric Auto-Lite Co.
His late brother, Evan Galbraith, served as ambassador to France in the Reagan administration.
His daughter Tenley Ann Galbraith died in February, 2003.
Surviving are his wife, the former Cynthia Finn, whom he married March 25, 1950; sons John Michael Galbraith and Geoffrey Galbraith; daughter, Cynthia Galbraith Curley; 10 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is planned for the spring. The family suggests tributes to the Toledo Museum of Art; Toledo Zoological Society; Planned Parenthood, or a charity of the donor’s choice.
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