Ralph R. Kleeberger, 1926-2011: Ex-educator was sculptor in retirement [The Blade, Toledo, Ohio]

Dec. 18--Ralph R. Kleeberger, a longtime educator and self-taught sculptor whose one outdoor artwork depicts a slice of old-time Perrysburg in bronze, died Thursday in the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital, of complications from a stroke. He was 85.

His life-sized bronze of a boy and girl at the historic Perrysburg water pump was dedicated in 2009 outside the Perrysburg schools' Commodore Building on Indiana Avenue. The project took Mr. Kleeberger nine years, and he used two local children as models.

A Perrysburg native, he remembered well the old town pump, a fixture at Second Street and Louisiana Avenue until it was removed in the early 1940s, the metal donated to the war effort.

"It was a center of interest," he told The Blade in 2009.

Children liked to play around the pump, and he chose to show a boy pumping water for a girl.

The 325-pound sculpture -- anchored to a 9,200-pound granite plinth -- was Mr. Kleeberger's largest. Many of his works are tabletop size.

"I wanted it to be where it could be seen," he told The Blade about the outdoor work.

He'd been a woodworker and made furniture, but after he retired in 1986 as a guidance counselor at Northwood High School, he turned to sculpting.

"It's creative," he told The Blade. "You look at something and say, 'Oh, I did that. I created that.' It's no different than painting."

Children were featured in most of his works, including a sculpture in the Way Public Library and another in First United Methodist Church in Perrysburg, where he was a member.

He also was a writer. About nine years ago, he published a collection of stories about growing up in Perrysburg, Tracks Along the River Bank.

"I call him my renaissance man," said Tim Birthisel, a friend. "He was a sailor, a writer, an educator -- a real gentleman."

He was born April 1, 1926, in Perrysburg to Addie and Frank Kleeberger. He enlisted in the Navy at 17 and served aboard a PT boat in the Pacific during World War II. Part of his duty included delivering Alamo Scouts, a special forces unit, to islands, Mr. Birthisel said. Mr. Kleeberger also spent time in the Philippines.

After the war, he returned to Perrysburg High School and graduated in 1946.

He attended Ohio State University and graduated in 1951 from Bowling Green State University with a degree in business.

He worked for a life insurance agency and for a company that sold business machinery but didn't find the work satisfying. He tried his hand at substitute teaching in the Perrysburg schools and liked it.

He was hired to teach business courses in the late 1950s at Northwood High School. He received a master's degree in 1968 from BGSU and became a guidance counselor at the high school.

"That was his love," his wife said. "The students really enjoyed him as the guidance counselor there. He liked kids. He liked people. He was a very outgoing person."

The Kleebergers, who lived in Wood County'sMiddleton Township, enjoyed spending time at their place near Lake Huron in northeastern Lower Michigan. They also traveled the world in retirement. A trip to China included a stop in the Philippines, where they were guests of a man with whom Mr. Kleeberger had stayed in touch since the war.

He was a Mason and had belonged to Phoenix Lodge and Zenobia Shrine.

He formerly served on the Wood County Board of Mental Health. He was a member of the Toledo Area Sculptors Guild. He was a member of Phi Kappa Delta, a professional association for educators.

Surviving are his wife, Lee Anne, whom he married Sept. 22, 1951, son, Steven Kleeberger, daughters, Kathy Burkey and Kristy McKibbin, sister, Adelyn Marshall, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandsons.

Memorial services will be at 11 a.m.Jan. 14, in First United Methodist Church, Perrysburg, where the family will greet friends after 9 a.m. Arrangements are by the Witzler-Shank Funeral Home, Perrysburg.

The family suggests tributes to a fund to install benches near Mr. Kleeberger's sculpture at the Commodore Building or to First United Methodist Church.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: [email protected] or 419-724-6182.

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