John wants to continue his service on the Upper Arlington City Council for the next four years. For John and his wife Maryline, Upper Arlington has been at the foundation of their adult lives. They started their married life in UA thirty-six years ago, and shortly after they became homeowners, later raising two children, Adam and Abigail, now grown.
He’s a graduate of The Ohio State University, where he majored in history, and Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he was a law clerk to Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. John started as an associate at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in 1981, and has been a partner at the firm since 1987 specializing in litigation. He has successfully argued and won cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state courts of appeal, and trial courts.
John has been active in service to the community. He has served as board president of both the Columbus Zoo and Catholic Social Services, president of the Federal Bar Association (Columbus chapter), as an officer of the Ohio Historical Society board and member of the Ohio Bicentennial Commission, and as a volunteer for many other community organizations. John is a member of St. Agatha Parish.
He is especially grateful to the City of Upper Arlington for such wonderful community facilities as the three outstanding municipal swimming pools which are fully accessible to all who want to improve their health and enjoy family time together. What started for John as a struggle to complete a few laps during the Early Bird Swim at the Tremont Pool in the summer of 2001 has led to swims across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Bosphorus, English Channel relays, swim crossings in the Sea of Galilee, the Solomon Islands and elsewhere in the world. The Bob Crane Community Center, which John championed and supported, is now under construction and scheduled to open in 2025. With its meeting spaces, exercise facilities, indoor gyms and running track as well as an indoor pool, all residents of Upper Arlington, like John, will be able to continue to pursue their fitness goals year round.