CLEVELAND PHILANTHROPY
Recent Projects
There are almost always several ongoing projects. Cleveland Philanthropy is project-based work with collaborative teams built that change and adapt as needed by specific projects. Some involve only one or two people, others involve a village, Here's a look at some of our recent work. Projects may last a year, or five years based on the needs of the client and the project.
Paul Landis
The Final Witness Project 2017-2024
Paul Landis worked his first presidential motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. As a Secret Service agent assigned to the First Lady’s detail, he was stationed on the rear passenger-side running board for the follow-up car—a Cadillac convertible—immediately behind the presidential limousine. He was never called to testify before the Warren Commission.
Landis’ book The Forgotten Witness was published in November 2023 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination. Cleveland Philanthropy worked with Landis as he drafted his initial manuscript of his book, and stayed with him as he navigated the process of finding an agent, up through publication of his book in November. Cleveland Philanthropy provided Landis with the help of a professional archivist to process his personal archives and memorabilia and to create a finding aid for his collection of papers and ephemera,
Wayne Bifano & Lake View Cemetery
In early 2019, after three years of work, Wayne Bifano realized a long-held dream to publish a book about Lake View Cemetery’s Wade Chapel from a docent’s perspective. Bifano’s deeply researched and thoughtful text is accompanied by atmospheric photographs by Timothy Lachina. The book was a gift from Wade Family members on the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Lake View Cemetery. Cleveland Philanthropy project managed this work, providing support to Bifano as needed, including putting together the team that provided the photography for the book, the professional editing, and managing the printing process for the first edition.
Sadly, Wayne Bifano passed away in early 2023, but his book is now in its second edition and available through Lake View Cemetery’s website.
Wayne Bifano (left) and photographer Tim Lachina in Wade Chapel
The Autobiography of
Jeptha Homer Wade: A Modest American
Accompanied by several contemporary introductory essays, this transcription of the original autobiography traces Wade’s story from his upbringing in the Finger Lakes district of New York to his work in building the first transcontinental telegraph line — a trajectory that found him rising from jobs as a tanner, shoemaker, brickmaker, carpenter, and portrait painter, to a builder of financial, civic and philanthropic institutions. It is an honest, intimate and stunning self-portrait depicting life in a changing America. Available through the Western Reserve Historical Society Website.
Sarah Gaylord Newberry: The Fossil Hunter’s Wife
Travel Journal 1849-1850
While doing research for another project, Witchey came across Sarah Brownell Gaylord Newberry’s 1849-50 journal. Sarah (1823–1899) was the eldest child of a Cleveland pharmacist. In 1848, she married a young Cuyahoga Falls physician named John S. Newberry (1822–1892). He went on to become a pioneering American physician, geologist, and paleontologist. She went on to have seven children. Much has been written about John. All that remains of Sarah’s voice is her handwritten journal from a trip to Paris, where John had gone to study medicine in 1849–50. Sarah Newberry looks at mid-century Paris and the couple’s subsequent travel to Italy with the fresh eyes of a young American matron seeing the world for the first time. The transcription of the journal was completed in 2022. The manuscript has been transcribed, proofed, and extensively annotated.
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Making A Difference: Three Generations of the Wade Family in Cleveland
Get to know your Jepthas
(Grandson--Great-Grandson-Grandfather)
​Jeptha H. Wade II (far left) was a young man in the 1890s when he sailed around the world with his family for the first time on their steam yacht the "Wadena." His grandfather, the original Jeptha, here holding his infant great-grandson, wasn't much older than that when he embarked on a career in the nascent telegraph industry to become a founder of The Western Union Telegraph Company.
Grandfather Jeptha built the first fortune and his grandson continued to work and grow the family fortune. Though the family lived and traveled well, much of the family's money was put to good use in Cleveland. The Wades gave extraordinary charitable gifts to Western Reserve University, Case Institute of Technology, schools, hospitals, orphanages, and programs that cared for children. Jeptha H. Wade II ensured that Cleveland also had an art museum and is considered one of the four original founders of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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Telling the story of the role of the Wade family in the creation of Cleveland's cultural infrastructure is the primary ongoing project of Cleveland Philanthropy.