Courtesy of Cleveland.com
Thomas Vincent Chema, a mainstay of community life in Cleveland and throughout Ohio, passed away suddenly on March 16, 2025. He had a long, distinguished, and energetic career of public service. Chema was President Emeritus of Hiram College having served as its 21st President from 2003 to 2014. During that period Chema brought the esteemed educational institution back from the brink of financial disaster, leading it to a period of stability and expansion. Under his care, enrollment increased and academic programs were added and enhanced. Notably in 2003, he established a tuition guaranty program pledging that students' tuition would not increase during their career at Hiram, a program believed to be the first of its kind among American institutions of higher education.
Chema's hand touched a multitude of endeavors ranging from health to education to infrastructure to governance. Perhaps the most visible of his successful projects for the people of Cleveland, was the Gateway Project. Chema ably shepherded the financing and oversaw construction of what was originally known as Jacobs Field and Gund Arena (today Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse). In 1990 the fate of professional baseball and basketball in Cleveland hung in the balance due to the inadequacy of facilities and the inability of political, business, and community officials to make any headway in what seemed an intractable problem. Fearing the loss of the professional franchises, then Governor Richard F. Celeste tasked Chema with the mission of saving the teams and sparking a revitalization of Cleveland's downtown.
Chema spearheaded a successful Cuyahoga County sales tax referendum that enabled a public/private funding formula for the eventual $461 million ballpark/arena development project in downtown Cleveland, then the largest public building project in the history of Ohio. The ballot initiative passed by one tenth of one percentage point. His consensus building among the various political leaders was critical to the early success of the project as was maintaining the public-private partnership. These world-class facilities were completed on time despite a legion of problems and obstacles. The efficacy of Chema's leadership helped to revive economic activity in the city, launched the baseball team into the 1995 and 1997 World Series, led to a home sellout streak of 455 games between 1995 and 2001 at the Jake, and a home for Lebron to bring Cleveland an NBA title.
Chema came to the Gateway Project with two notable prior accomplishments vital to the people of Ohio. In 1983, the Ohio Lottery was failing in its mandate to provide a supplement for Ohio public education. Chema was appointed as the Executive Director of the legalized gaming department. Almost overnight the Ohio Lottery became a fiscal boon for the state as Chema led it with competence and integrity. His lottery soon became a model for similar ventures around the country.
By 1985, Ohio citizens had invested enormously in two nuclear power plants. However, with the atomic disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, as well as operating problems with the facilities themselves, the continued viability of Ohio's nuclear plants from safety, financial, and political perspectives was in doubt. Again, Governor Celeste turned to Chema on this occasion. Appointed as the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Chema was able to devise a conversion plan from nuclear to conventional power generation; a plan that saved the sector from insolvency and has supplied the state with sufficient safe fuels for the last 50 years.
Chema was born in 1946 in East Liverpool, Ohio, the son of a steel worker and store clerk. He was the first member of his family to attend college, studying at the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation he obtained his officer commission in the U. S. Air Force and served honorably during the Vietnam War. Chema graduated from Harvard Law School and began the practice of law in 1971. Upon leaving the Air Force, he joined the firm of Arter & Hadden, ultimately becoming a partner. Although he excelled in private practice, he felt repeatedly called to public service.
Later in his career, Chema established a consultancy known as The Gateway Group. This enterprise served as a vehicle for Chema's enormous reservoir of creative ventures around Ohio, the nation, and the world. Among the many projects that Chema helped to spearhead were baseball stadiums in Cincinnati, Akron, Toledo, the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Palm Desert, California, and numerous other cultural, athletic, and economic development projects.
More central to his life than those physical structures Chema helped to build, were the people he tried to raise up. Chema served on the boards of countless corporate, civic, and charitable organizations.
Chema is survived by his spouse and Gateway Group business partner, Ms. Joan M. Mason, and his brother John Richard Chema (Susan), Ms. Mason's children, William Mason (Meg), Mary Catherine Mason, Madeline Mason of Baltimore, Maryland, and Abigail Mason of Chicago, Illinois. Chema had two children Christine Chema Beall (Tom) of Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Stephen T. Chema, II (Robin), of Washington, D.C. Christine and Stephen's Mother, Ms. Barbara Burke Chema, resides in Aurora, Ohio. Chema was a doting grandfather to six grandchildren: Katherine Ellen Beall of Savannah, Georgia, John Robert (Jack) Beall of Clemson University, Stanley and Benjamin Chema of Washington, D.C., and Violet and Jack Mason.
Funeral Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on Saturday March 29, 2025 at 10 am. Visitation with family and friends will be held at McGORRAY-HANNA Funeral Home, 25620 Center Ridge Rd. (West of Columbia Rd.) on Friday, March 28 from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, The Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, or the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.