OBIT: Kimber CLEAVER, 1930, formerly of Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2010.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
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KIMBER CLEAVER

  The Hawley Times, published at Hawley, Wayne County, Pa., announces the death, 
at that place of Kimber Cleaver, who was owner and editor of the Meyersdale 
Commercial for several years before it suspended publication in July, 1918, 
under the management of E. K. Cockley and H. G. Lepley.  Mr. Cleaver was an 
experienced educator and newspaperman, but was unable to make a financial 
success of the old Commercial in competition with the Meyersdale Republican.  He 
was highly esteemed here as a gentleman of irreproachable character and culture.  
The Hawley Times pays him the following tribute:
  Kimber Cleaver at one time supervising principal of the local school system 
and for nearly ten years editor and publisher of The Hawley Times, died at his 
home on Penn Avenue and River Street, early last Friday morning, following a 
long illness.
  Born near Catawissa, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, on October 4, 1859, the 
early years of his life were devoted to securing the foundation of the cultural 
education which was to mark his entire career.  He was graduated from Dickinson 
College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later took the degree of Master 
of Arts at the same institution.  Pursuing his studies still further he received 
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Taylor University, Ohio, and earlier 
attended Bloomsburg State Teachers' College where he took post graduate work in 
education.
  He assumed his first responsible post in the educational field some forty 
years ago when he came to Hawley as supervising principal of the local school 
system, which post he filled with signal efficiency for six years, following 
which he left to become principal of the city high school at Shamokin, 
Pennsylvania.
  After remaining in Shamokin for three years, Mr. Cleaver left to fill the post 
of superintendent of schools at Huntingdon, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and 
while there purchased the Semi-Weekly News and entered the field of journalism 
for the first time.  This paper he edited for more than ten years following 
which he moved to Meyersdale and from there to York, Pennsylvania, and in 1919 
came again to Hawley, this time as editor and proprietor of The Hawley Times.
  The illness which preceded his death began some two years ago and since that 
time he had been in steadily failing health.  On Saturday, February 15 last, his 
condition became suddenly grave and in spite of all that could be done he never 
rallied.
  Since his boyhood Mr. Cleaver had been actively identified with the Methodist 
church and for more than forty years served it as a steward.  For many years he 
acted as superintendent of Sunday schools which work he carried on until 
incapacitation forced him to discontinue.  He was also an active member of the 
order of Free and Accepted Masons.
  Mr. Cleaver is survived by his wife, Mrs. Lillian Cleaver, and a daughter, 
Ruth, of Hawley; and by two brothers:  Clarence and Jesse B. Cleaver, both of 
Danville, Pa.
  Funeral services were conducted at his Hawley home last Sunday afternoon by 
Rev. John R. Austin of the local M.E. church.  Burial was made Monday in the 
Huntingdon cemetery at Huntingdon, Pa. where is buried a son, Max, who was born 
in Hawley while Mr. Cleaver was head of the local schools, but who died some 
twenty years ago while the family was residing at Huntingdon. 
  If it were possible to depict a man's full span of life in one short sentence 
- what greater honor could that man receive than this - "He was most gentle and 
he loved his fellow men"?
  Kimber Cleaver, educator and editor, who died at his home in Hawley early 
Friday morning after a life full of service and of years, is so described by 
those who knew and loved him.
  Some acts that mark men's lives can be retold in marble or in bronze, but 
gentleness and love defy depiction in such unplastic media.
  He faced the world and all its trials undaunted, unafraid, greeting life's 
heartaches with a philosophic smile and discounting its little triumphs with the 
same.
  We knew him personally but a little while, yet in that short span we came to 
watch for him upon the street, to catch his warm salute and listen to his words 
of help and cheer.
  His passing leaves a wake of sorrow which time alone can still and the 
sincerest sympathy of The Hawley Times goes out to those who mourn his loss.
  Our chief regret is that we did not know him better for life is always made 
more full by contact with a life so calm and sweet.
  "His life was gentle; and the elements so mix'd in him that Nature might stand 
up and say to all the world, 'this was a man'."

Meyersdale Republican, March 6, 1930