Remembering Jerry Springer
Last week, talk show host and progressive advocate Jerry Springer passed away at his home in Chicago. Outside of Ohio Jerry was well known for his television show, while many of us in the Buckeye state also knew of his passion to make Ohio a better state for working people. Jerry was extremely generous and often volunteered to speak at labor events and lift-up issues important to the trade union movement. Jerry’s family put out a statement which read in part, “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”
Before his talk show, Springer was a political campaign advisor for Robert Kennedy, served on Cincinnati City Council and as Mayor as well as being an Emmy-winning local news anchor in Cincinnati. In 1965, Jerry earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans and three years later received a law degree from Northwestern University.
"Jerry Springer was from the beginning an advocate for working people and trade unions, said Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga. I got to see first-hand the humanitarian and charitable side of Jerry and his active role in helping those in need. Jerry’s enthusiasm, support and advocacy for democratic principles and ideals was inspirational and will be missed.”
Springer was born on February 13, 1944 in the London Underground station of Highgate while the station was in use as a shelter from German bombing during World War II. His parents were German-Jewish refugees who escaped from Prussia (now Poland). His maternal and paternal grandmothers died in the Nazi extermination and concentration camps of Poland and Czechoslovakia.