Loomis, Greg 57, passed away August 5th. Beloved husband of Norrie Loomis nee Merritt. Loving father of Neil Loomis and Evelyn Loomis. Dear step-brother of David Maxfield (Susie) and Sheren Klenoshek (Frank). Preceded in death by his parents James P. Loomis and Mary Ann Maxfield. A memorial service will be held in honor of Greg’s life at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 8101 Beechmont Ave on Saturday, August 13 at 11 am. Family requests donations be made to McLean Hospital of Harvard Medical School, https://givemclean.partners.org in memory of Greg Loomis. Funds will be donated to research cluster headaches. Donations may also be made to Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation, P.O. Box 6363 Cinti OH 45206 and Saint Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 8101 Beechmont Ave. Cinti OH 45255.
Some knew Greg Loomis as a journalist, a writer who would hold public officials’ feet to the fire and a teller of stories that would lift people’s spirits.
Others knew him as a community activist, a citizen dedicated to making a struggling neighborhood a better place to live, while some knew him as a dogged advocate for making public schools in Cincinnati the best that they could be.
“If you knew him, you liked him,” said his brother-in-law, Al Merritt of Miami, Fla. “He could challenge people, he could argue passionately, but he did it always in a way that left people walking away with a good feeling about him.”
He was, Merritt said, “simply the kind of person everyone wanted to be around.”
Mr. Loomis died Aug. 5 at the Mount Washington home he shared with his wife, Norrie, and where they raised their two now-grown children. He was 57.
News of his sudden death spread quickly to his countless friends here in Cincinnati, around the country and overseas.
A native of Columbus, Mr. Loomis’ career as a journalist began in the 1970s as a reporter and editor at the Western Hills Press Monfort Heights. One of his friends in the community newspaper group then was Rich Boehne, now president and CEO of E.W. Scripps Co. He remained a good friend over years, having dinner with Mr. Loomis and others just a week before his death.
“He was a very gifted journalist; his curiosity never stopped,” Boehne said. “He had a sense for what made a community tick; and an ability to capture the imagination of the people who read him.”
He was, Boehne said, “the guy who everybody wanted to follow.”
John Woolard of Los Angeles worked with Mr. Loomis as a journalist at the west-side newspaper and has remained a friend over the years.
“Greg was tops on a short list of the most intelligent, insightful people I have known,” Woolard said.
He could, and often did, “hold court on a wide variety of subjects, waxing eloquently on music, sports, politics, arts, philosophy and the importance of rotating your tires.”
And, Woolard said, he was a funny man, a man with a sense of humor.
“The guy could read the phone book and make you laugh,” Woolard said.
Mr. Loomis left Cincinnati for several years in the late 1980s and early ’90s to become the editorial page editor for the Asbury Park Press in Neptune, N.J.
When he returned to Cincinnati in 1991, he became publisher and editor of El Hospital, a Spanish-language medical magazine that circulated in 20 countries in Latin America.
“He absolutely immersed himself in the subject and became an expert in health care in that part of the world,” Merritt said. “Like everything he did, he was very passionate about it.”
Mr. Loomis sold the magazine in 2003; and, two years later, became the managing editor of Cincy Business magazine, now known as Cincy Magazine.
“Greg was a journalist who never lost his passion for civic endeavors and citizen engagement,” said Felix Winternitz, who hired Mr. Loomis as managing editor. “He truly cared about his chosen community and he always put his readers first.”
It was during this time, when his son and daughter – now in their 20s – were in Cincinnati Public Schools, he became one of the major forces behind Parents for Public Schools, an organization that continually pushed Cincinnati Public Schools to strive for excellence.
Brewster Rhoads, a neighbor of the Loomis family in Mount Washington, was also involved in Parents for Public Schools. He and Mr. Loomis used to car pool their kids to Walnut Hills High School.
“He was a clear -thinking voice for change in public education,” Rhoads said.
“We had worked at it for a long time: and Greg had the sophistication to know that it was time for those of us who had led the movement to move and let new people in to run the organization,” Rhoads said.
One of those people Mr. Loomis helped bring into the organization, Rhoads said, was a parent named Vanessa White, who is now a board of education member.
Mr. Loomis ran his own media communications company, doing media and marketing consulting for a number of clients.
But, in recent years, he has been the executive director of the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation, a non-profit development corporation aimed at improving conditions for business and residents in the neighborhood.
“He was just the right kind of person for a job like that,” Merritt said. “He could relate to everyone. He could hold a conversation with the mayor or a rich business executive or a homeless guy on the street he was trying to get into a shelter.
“What a positive impact his life has had on this city,” Merritt said.
In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, Neil Loomis of Cincinnati; a daughter, Evelyn Loomis of Chicago; his step-father, Elmo Maxfield of Louisville; his step-mother, Joanie Loomis of Columbus; a step-brother, W. David Maxfield of Louisville; and a step-sister, Sheren Klenoshek of Mechanicsburg, Pa.
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