Great Living Cincinnatians: Honorees

Ransohoff, 68 at the time he was awarded, was a scholar, educator, social worker, historian and fervent Cincinnati booster.

Ransohoff graduated from Walnut Hills High School, earned a bachelor’s degree at Bard College, a master’s degree in social work at Columbia University and a doctorate at Union Graduate School. He began his career as a documentary photographer, and his work was shown at the Smithsonian Institution, the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal and the Museum of Modern Art’s Family of Man exhibit in New York.

After a stint in the Navy, he returned to Cincinnati for a career in social work and education. He was special projects director for the United Way and Community Chest for nearly three decades, and was an associate professor of community planning in the Department of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. Unofficially, Ransohoff was Greater Cincinnati’s premier tour guide, leading thousands of tours which included geology, history and industrialization of the region, for residents and visitors. Companies called on Dr. Ransohoff to help recruit workers who may have had negative feelings about the city.

He was a recipient of the Ohio Governor’s Award for the Humanities, the Post Corbett Award, the UC Board of Trustees Award for Excellence, the Northwest Ordinance Bicentennial’s Spirit of ’87 Award and a presidential citation from Xavier University. For the city’s Bicentennial in 1988, he was honored as one of 200 “Greater Cincinnatians.”

Ransohoff served on the boards of the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition, Miami Purchase Association, WCET-TV and WGUC-FM, United Christian Ministries, International Visitors Center, Contemporary Arts Center and National Publicity Council for Health and Welfare Services.

Ransohoff’s other activities included the Chamber’s Executive Recruitment Committee, the Public Relations Society of America, National Association of Social Workers, Queen City Association, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, United Way of America, Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, UC’s Board of Judaic Studies and the Cincinnatus Association.

Daniel J. Ransohoff died at a hospital in Cincinnati on May 29, 1993. He was 71.