A statement from CIM on the passing of philanthropist Clara Rankin

CIM and the cultural community of Cleveland lost an enduring and stalwart supporter Wednesday with the passing of Clara Rankin, at the remarkable age of 107.  

CIM has had many champions in its long history. Few, however, supported the school longer than Rankin, who served as a Trustee for more than a quarter-century, from 1951 to 1981. Since 2004, she had been a Trustee Emeritus. 

“Clara Rankin was a true friend of CIM and will be greatly missed,” said Paul Hogle, CIM’s President & CEO. “We are profoundly grateful for her long devotion to our school and mission, and join our colleagues across the region in extending sincere condolences to the Rankin family.”  

Rankin’s impact on CIM was indeed enormous. She was instrumental to CIM’s move to University Circle. She also helped select pianist Victor Babin as president. And she’s been with or supported CIM through every major initiative since, a loyal friend to the end.  

Even that, though, doesn’t fully describe Rankin’s commitment to CIM and Northeast Ohio. Clara was the matriarch of a family central to Cleveland’s cultural landscape.  

Name a major cultural organization in Greater Cleveland and there’s a good chance Clara Rankin or the Rankin family had a significant hand in its development.  

Here at CIM, Rankin’s brother, Frank Taplin, served as chairman of the board in the 1950s. She and her late husband Alfred, meanwhile, were pivotal not only to CIM but also to The Cleveland Orchestra (notably including the construction of Blossom Music Center), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland Metroparks, and University Circle, Inc.  

Clara’s love of music was great. She grew up in a highly musical home surrounded by parents and siblings who played every family of instrument and regularly enjoyed recordings of tenor Enrico Caruso. She herself was a singer and sang at Hathaway Brown School.  

Rankin carried that love of music to Smith College in Massachusetts, where she studied voice along with history and sang in the choir and glee club.  

After graduation, Rankin moved to New York, where she continued to study voice before marrying (in 1940) Alfred Rankin, who soon went off to serve in WWII as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Clara is reported to have sung popular songs onboard her husband’s ship when it was in port. 

Rankin’s active involvement with CIM commenced in 1951, when she joined the Board of Trustees after moving back to Cleveland and beginning voice studies with Marie Kraft, then head of the vocal department. 

As a Trustee, Rankin contributed to the selection of pianist Victor Babin as president in 1961 and helped raise funds for the construction of CIM’s iconic home in University Circle. Over the ensuing decades, Rankin and her family remained CIM benefactors, resulting in a 63-year legacy of support for scholarships. 

Fittingly, in 2021, Rankin was granted the Barbara S. Robinson Prize from the Cleveland Arts Prize, an honor given in memory of Barbara Robinson, a CIM Life Trustee and another one of CIM’s greatest supporters.  

At a CIM Women’s Committee benefit celebration in 2019, Hogle summarized Rankin’s legacy at CIM and connected it to the present day. He said that as a member of CIM’s Board of Trustees and Women’s Committee, Rankin “worked tirelessly to ensure students have opportunities to pursue their dreams of becoming the world’s most talented classical musicians.” 

A memorial service for Clara Rankin will be held at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, 2757 Fairmount Blvd. in Cleveland Heights at 2pm Saturday, March 1. A musical gathering to celebrate Rankin’s life will be held at a later time at Severance Music Center. 

A full obituary can be found here: https://obits.cleveland.com/us/obituaries/cleveland/name/clara-rankin-obituary?id=57677842