Thursday, March 25, 1999
Fire kills Clermont Co. leader
Flannery was chief developer of Eastgate area
BY WALT SCHAEFER and TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BATAVIA TOWNSHIP — Harold Flannery, 64, a developer and community leader who had helped engineer the economic emergence of Clermont County since the 1960s, died in a fire in his historic home here early Wednesday.
Mr. Flannery's body was found in the second-floor-rear master bedroom of his two-story stone and brick home on Olive Branch-Stonelick Road by Batavia Township firefighters who responded to the 2:30 a.m. blaze.
Fire Chief John Bucher said Mr. Flannery's body was discovered in his bed, and the fire appeared to have started near the bed, leading some officials to speculate that smoking might have played a role. The fire was ruled accidental, and the cause is being investigated by the state fire marshal's office.
Kelly Flannery-Hacker, 37, said her father “was very future-minded. He had great vision for this county.”
Mr. Flannery led the group that developed Eastgate Mall and put together the land needed for the Ford Motor Co. plant in Batavia. He became a close friend and development partner with former Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes, she said.
The former governor was among many past and present state, county and local leaders and business officials to send condolences Wednesday.
Mr. Flannery helped launch the Clermont County Chamber of Commerce and, along with the former governor, brought the University of Cincinnati's Clermont College to the coun ty. He helped to bring an airport, sewer and infrastructure improvements to the county — major hurdles to fostering economic growth and prosperity. He was instrumental in the state's development of East Fork State Park and the park's Harsha Lake.
The family is awaiting autopsy results. “My father smoked cigars. But we ... don't know what happened,” said Mrs. Flannery-Hacker, who was at the scene Wednesday morning. “He has had a heart condition — congestive heart failure — and diabetes, and could have had a heart attack.”
Mr. Flannery's wife, Shirley, 63, suffered burns to her arms and was treated at Clermont Mercy Hospital and released. The fire was confined to the master bedroom and hallway, with smoke damage to much of the house. Damage was estimated at $120,000, Chief Bucher said. The original stone house, built in 1796, was not involved. The master bedroom is in an addition to the original building.
Mrs. Flannery-Hacker said her mother told her she was reading in the first-floor kitchen and smelled smoke, went upstairs to investigate and was forced back by heat and smoke. She apparently was burned when she put her arms up to shield her face. She then ran outside and used a cellular phone from a car to call firefighters.
Mr. Flannery's loss was apparent in the words of the former governor.
“He was so far ahead of everybody there,” former Gov. Rhodes said Wednesday afternoon. “They should name something after him there so people will know.”
Mr. Rhodes recalled Mr. Flannery as a sincere family man and a visionary. “He would come to Columbus; it was astounding. He was pioneering in everything they have there,” said Mr. Rhodes, who was governor for 16 years beginning in 1962, when Clermont was largely rural. “He had blueprints for things they hadn't even dreamed of.”
“My condolences to his family,” he added. “They're a great family.”
Mrs. Flannery-Hacker, who worked with her father, said he “liked to point out that unemployment was 26 percent when he came to Clermont County and now it is under 5 percent.”
Their company is now involved in projects to bring an outlet mall and new housing development to a tract on the north side of Ohio 32 opposite the Ford plant. Mr. Flannery also had recently accelerated plans for a retirement home and other commercial and residential development for New Richmond to help that village recover from the Ohio River Flood of 1997.
“He was extremely outgoing and kindhearted to a fault. He was involved in helping people go to college or with medical bills,” Mrs. Flannery-Hacker said.
“He did not like being around negative people. Terrible things would happen — that's part of being in development — and he would always find a way to get through them,” she said. “He was a man who could make you mad but you still liked him. He respected others and they respected him. He just called things as he saw them.”
“Harold was a modern-day pioneer in the economic development of Clermont County,” said County Engineer Carl Hartman, who had known Mr. Flannery since the 1970s. “It's a shame, it's just a shame.”
Mr. Hartman described Mr. Flannery as a self-made man who rose from humble beginnings to emerge as a leading force in the growth of the Eastgate commercial district.
Angelo Santoro, an engineer and surveyor who had worked closely with Mr. Flannery on many projects since they met in 1963, said: “Harold was ... a person who cared about improving the community, and he was instrumental in developing and maintaining good, close political ties to the folks in government — local, state, federal — who helped the county.”
Mr. Santoro said Clermont County in the early 1960s had only septic sewage. “He found the funds to improve this county's infrastructure.
“To me, he was a man to be trusted, a man of his word, and he tried to do all things well. A handshake with Harold was a good-enough contract with me.”
Funeral arrangements are pending at the Moore Family Funeral Home.
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