Former Ohio parks director dies at 86

COLUMBUS (AP) — Longtime public servant Robert Teater, who led Republican Gov. James Rhodes’ expansion of Ohio’s state park system in the 1970s and once ran for governor, was remembered today as an innovative conservationist who developed and defended unique spaces for wildlife and humans.

Teater died Sunday in Columbus of complications from Parkinson’s disease, his daughter-in-law Phyllis Teater told The Associated Press. He was 86.

Teater served as director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources under Rhodes from 1975 to 1983, where he acquired and developed some of Ohio’s most popular parks, including Alum Creek and Maumee Bay. He also took the unusual step of developing a state park in an urban area — what became Cleveland Lakefront State Park.

Later, Teater was a founder of The Wilds, a wildlife conservation center in Muskingum County, which sits on 100,000 acres of reclaimed strip mines.