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Chief justice honors Judge Clunk for his service
YOUNGSTOWN
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor of the Ohio Supreme Court and Mahoning County Probate Judge Robert N. Rusu Jr. honored Judge R.R. Denny Clunk on Judge Clunk’s last day as a judge after 31 years on the bench.
The chief justice presented Judge Clunk with the top court’s proclamation of appreciation for his service at a Thursday luncheon celebration in the county courthouse rotunda.
The county commissioners presented him with a similar proclamation.
“You could not find a more intelligent and gracious human being than Judge Clunk,” said Judge Rusu, who called him “the dean” of Ohio probate judges.
“His judicial experience and approach will be missed,” Judge Rusu said.
Judge Clunk’s retirement cake bore the words: “Congratulations to the dean of probate. Your life’s work has made a difference.”
Calling Judge Clunk a man of “quiet resolve,” the chief justice said: “Judge Clunk has always been the workhorse, the power that makes it happen and the last one to take accolades.”
The chief justice was a Summit County Probate Court magistrate during the 1980s.
Chief Justice O’Connor assigned Judge Clunk, a former Stark County Probate Court judge, as Mahoning County’s interim probate judge for nearly four months in 2014 between the resignation of Judge Mark Belinky and the installation of Judge Rusu.
“I want to thank the staff here in Mahoning County for the wonderful reception I received two years ago, when I came here under rather significant controversy,” Judge Clunk told the crowd that included probate and other judges, lawyers, court personnel and county officials.
“I remember the first day I was here, I met with some people from the FBI, and they asked me what I was going to do,” Judge Clunk said.
“I said: ‘I just got here. I don’t know what I’m going to do,’” he recalled.
Gov. John Kasich appointed Judge Rusu to complete Belinky’s term before Judge Rusu was elected in November 2014 to a full six-year term as probate judge here.
Belinky pleaded guilty to falsifying his 2008 judicial campaign financial records and was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest and 200 hours of community service and fined $2,500.
As part of the plea deal, Belinky agreed to quit the Democratic primary race for his judicial seat and surrender his law license.
Judge Clunk, of Alliance, who was Stark County Probate Court judge from 1985 to 2003, has been a visiting judge in 22 of Ohio’s 88 probate courts and served five times as an interim judge.
He received the National College of Probate Judges’ Treet Award as the outstanding probate judge in the nation in 2003, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Association of Probate Judges in 2011 and the Thomas J. Moyer Award for Judicial Excellence from the Ohio State Bar Association in 2015.
He is past president of the Stark County Bar Association, the Ohio Association of Probate Judges and the National College of Probate Judges.
He was instrumental in state legislative initiatives, including the guardian and adoption reform bills and the Putative Father Registry.