John Rocco Climaco

JOHN ROCCO CLIMACO put down his phone, yellow legal pad and pen for the last time on February 18, 2022 after a long battle with metastatic cancer. He was 80 years old and laid to rest in a private ceremony at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, OH.

John was a hunter of almost anything that ran or flew or breathed, a fisherman, a foodie and food consumer of truly epic proportion, a world traveler and a bon vivant known not only to every President from Carter to Biden, but to many average Americans be they clients, friends or just shocked witnesses whose stories about John’s famous legal skill, generosity, terrible driving, gastronomic and narcoleptic feats will outlive him for generations to come. He was one of the 100 most powerful attorneys in the United States according to the National Law Journal, and the National Trial Lawyers Association called him one of the 100 most influential trial lawyers in the country. He was a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Breath of Life Award from the American Lung Association for his work against the tobacco industry. He is mourned by auto and boat mechanics in several countries, as well as by the many law enforcement officers he represented and by whom he was frequently stopped on his excessively fast way to court in jurisdictions around the country. He is survived by his beloved family including his devoted wife of 57 years, Carolyn, his son John M. Climaco, his darling daughter Nicole, his grandchildren John Nicholas and Athena, as well as his brother Michael.

John R. Climaco was born on September 24, 1941 to his parents John and Isabell Climaco, hard-working Italian Americans who believed deeply that education was the key to progress. John made it through Ohio State, barely, and then proceeded to Case Western Reserve Law School where he met his life’s calling. Soon after graduation he also met his life-long assistant by whom he is also survived, Donna Cydzik. When they started out together in 1969, John collected $620 in fees his first month, of which he paid Donna $575. Less than a decade later, John was shuttling, generally on the red-eye, between his firm in Cleveland which had grown to 65 attorneys, to his office on Capitol hill in Washington where he managed another team of 25 attorneys as General Counsel to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with its four million members, to Los Angeles and his entertainment practice, the star of which was his dear friend Sammy Davis, Jr., his client from 1974 until the entertainer’s death in 1990. John would never call himself a self-made man as that would be an insult to his parents. However, as he sometimes said, no one was stepping up to help a nobody Italian kid from Clark Avenue on the west side of Cleveland. So, when John sat in front of the Senate Labor Relations Committee with the President of the Teamsters at his side, as he did many times, or when he negotiated with the William Morris Agency on Sammy’s behalf, when he was appointed the Federal Examiner in the White Motors Chapter 11 bankruptcy, at the time the largest industrial bankruptcy in US History, or when he crafted a settlement directly with Cesar Chavez and the United Migrant Farm Workers, or when he negotiated multi-million and billion dollar settlements against opponents ranging from Baycol to Johnson and Johnson to USAir to General Motors to ATT, and of course to the landmark $243 billion dollar Castano class action settlement against the biggest players in the tobacco industry on the theory that nicotine was addictive, he did it all through hard work and a true intellectual gift for understanding and using the law. It’s one reason why John appeared so many times on the Larry King Show, Night Line, Good Morning America, and the Today Show to name a few – no matter the legal problem, John could break it down, make it understandable and not just see but articulate and execute the solution. Of course, if the problem was mechanical, technical or electronic in nature, John was much more likely to be the cause than the solution.

John sometimes said he’d never worked a day in his life because while he was happy to be well paid for his legal work, he’d have done it for free and often did. Sleeping only four hours per night for decades, John’s work ethic and dedication to zealous representation of his clients was unmatched. However, when he did intentionally disconnect (as opposed to the many unintentional disconnects from his cell phones), he approached relaxation with his family and friends with the same zeal. John will be remembered for his ability to drop off to sleep anywhere, anytime and in any position for one of his 15-minute power naps. With the number of cars and boats crashed, flipped and damaged, friends and family often wondered whether his naps extended to the driver’s seat, or whether anyone could actually be that bad a driver. However, upon actually awakening, he was always as astonishingly ready as promised for whatever adventure was to come: Bird hunting from Sandusky to Argentina, Elk hunting throughout the West, fishing in places so remote the only way in was float plane, riding his mule, Dixie, in remote northern Idaho at his cousins’ ranch – yes, John owned a mule - Life was an adventure to be lived, and eaten, where his egalitarian nature extended to cuisine. While John could easily lay waste to a 12 course Michelin-starred meal like most people go through an hor d’oeuvre plate, John also never encountered a clam basket (or 30) he didn’t decimate, a rack of ribs he didn’t strip to the bone, or a pint Cherry Garcia soon to disappear from this Earth. Even so, he always had a little more room for his favorite, Carolyn’s sauce.

John loved to travel. He made a grand tour of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana with his son and grandson, too many trips to Europe and the Caribbean to count, and accompanied Sammy Davis to many international shows. Unlike most, John always chose the red-eye even well into his seventies because who had time to sleep or fly? Once John even joined an expedition to Nepal with his son where he trekked to a remote part of that country. A standout even as a Super-Sized American, and always ready to laugh at himself more than anyone or anything else, slack jawed Sherpas pointed and waved their arms while John, completely out of shape, climbed the thousands of feet of stone steps to the fabled village of Namche Bazar where he proudly told them to “look now while it’s free, the fattest man in Nepal has reached Namche!”

Though many words and superlatives could and should be attached to the memory of John R. Climaco, John would be most proud to be remembered by just two:

John lived.

Throughout his life, John was a well-known philanthropist and gifts in his name may be directed to one of his three favorite charities:

Our Lady of the Wayside www.thewayside.org, 38023 Colorado Ave., Avon, OH 44011.

Pan Foundation www.panfoundation.org, PO Box 716408 Philadelphia, PA 19171 Att: Prostate Cancer

The National Ability Center http://discovernac.org, 1000 Ability Way, Park City, UT 84060.

I have focused on the joys and the triumphs with which my dad’s life was filled, but they are only part of his story, and perhaps not even the most important parts. My dad always recognized that joy was to be savored because sorrow was unavoidable in this life. He knew this personally, of course, because there were many sorrows. My parents buried 22 relatives and friends in their first year of marriage, something neither of them ever forgot. Later there were tight times financially, family and friends lost to tragedy and illness, and days, weeks and months when the news coverage of my dad and his clients was not so kind. It pained him deeply to see his family suffer, but I believe it strengthened his resolve to be an example to all of us. My dad had a favorite quote which he considered his motto and with which I will close this eulogy to a remarkable, extraordinary human being: When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Dad, the going is tough now without you but we will try to be as tough as you taught us to be, and to get going living life which is what you did with yours.

John R. Climaco was my friend.

John R. Climaco was my dad.