Merle Merlin McCurdy (1912 - 1968)

Born 12 Jul 1912 in Ohio, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Rosetta Gertrude (Scott) McCurdy — married 30 Jan 1937 in Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States

Descendants

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Biography

Merle McCurdy was born on July 12, 1912 in Conneaut, Ohio. He was the second son of LeRoy Nelson McCurdy and Evelyn Gertrude Foster McCurdy Cowan. He had an older brother, LeRoy Foster McCurdy, known as Foster, or just 'Doc' (his nieces and nephews referred to him as Uncle Doc). Merle graduated from Conneaut High School and later from (Case) Western Reserve University in 1947 with a law degree.

He served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office and later was named as the county’s initial Public Defender and the first African American to work at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. In 1961, he was the first African American appointed as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio by President John F. Kennedy, only the second African American to hold this position in the United States.

In 1967, following the Hough riots in Cleveland, Merle took a leave of absence as U.S. Attorney to serve as General Counsel to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the “Kerner Commission”), an investigation into the causes of the racial violence that was prevalent in the U.S. during the 1960's. In March of 1968, Merle was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the Country’s first Consumer Counsel. Unfortunately, Merle passed away unexpectedly before serving in this new capacity.

One of Merle's friends, George M. Steinbrenner, future owner of the New York Yankees and then President of the American Ship Building Co., stated the following in announcing the naming of a ship for his fallen friend, the "Merle M. McCurdy", the first ship on the Great Lakes Fleet to be named for an African American:

“We feel this is a most appropriate gesture, and one of which the entire Great Lakes industry should be proud… This ship should serve to remind many people, that this ideal which McCurdy exemplified is in fact a real one and that … it is our duty to see that such opportunities are always available regardless of race, creed, or color.”

The story begins with Nasa McCurdy, Merle’s great-great grandfather and a former slave, who was manumitted by Rachel Kennedy in Greene County, Pennsylvania during the 1790s. During the 1840s Nasa McCurdy, Jr., his son, acquired property near Zanesville, Ohio. A known conductor on the Underground Railroad, he made several trips to Amhertsburg, Ontario, an area he would eventually settle in to permanently. In this small town just across the river into Canada from Detroit, MI Nasa helped establish the Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church, an ending point on the Underground Railroad. Nasa, Jr's son, George Douglass McCurdy, named after family friend and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and his son Roy (Merle's father) would leave Canada and start a new life Conneaut, Ohio in the beginning of the 20th century.

Merle was married Rosetta Scott and had two daughters, Myrna and Brenda.

On May 6, 1968, Merle was at Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, preparing to travel to Washington, D.C. for his new job as Consumer Counsel, he collapsed, dying of an apparent brain aneurysm.

Merle is buried at Cleveland’s Highland Park Cemetery, near the golf course where he and Gerald Gold played golf. Foster, Merle’s brother, in 1978 would join his brother in death at the same cemetery.

Sources

Kent State University, Merle M. McCurdy Collection - https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy

Birth

U.S. Census, 1920 - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RJW-41Q?i=1&cc=1488411&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMD14-B1W

Marriage

Married Rosetta Scott, January 30, 1937 [note: Marriage record has Rosetta's first name misspelled as 'Rosette]. Ohio, County Marriages 1789-2016, 1937, volume 180 -

https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/30

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-1MCR-S?i=34&cc=1614804&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A2QW3-VBK

Education and Career

Conneaut High School, 1931 - https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/33, https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/41, https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/40

Case Western Reserve University, 1947 - https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/14

Death

May 6, 1968

Obituaries

• The Plain Dealer - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4HZ9-YBT2
• Medina County Gazette - https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4852463/merle-merlin-mccurdy-dead-at-56/

Gravesite: Highland Point Cemetery, Cuyahoga, Ohio - https://billiongraves.com/grave/Merle-M-McCurdy/15146208

Family History recount of death: https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/4

Naming of Ship

https://oaks.kent.edu/mccurdy_gallery/3