Kleiner, A. Robert, 1916-

Grand Rapids, Michigan, attorney and political activist.

A. Robert Kleiner was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on December 2, 1916. He attended the local public schools and received his A.B. and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. After military service and a brief period of employment in Detroit, Kleiner returned to Grand Rapids in 1946 and became a founding partner in the law firm of Kleiner, DeYoung and Fayette. He devoted his practice almost exclusively to labor law.

Among Kleiner's civic and political activities are participation in Citizen Action, the Democratic Party, and the Commission on Legislative Apportionment. In addition, he was a charter member and director of Citizen Action, a Grand Rapids non-partisan organization for good government founded in 1949. He also served as Chairman of the Public Relations Committee in 1950 and Vice-President in 1951.

As a Democratic Party activist, Kleiner has held various offices at the county, congressional district, and state levels of the party organization, and has been a delegate to Democratic Party national conventions. An authority on legislative apportionment, Kleiner was chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party Committee on Apportionment and three-time member of the Michigan Commission on Legislative Apportionment. Twice he served as Co-chairman of the Commission, and twice he was co-author of the apportionment plan which was adopted. The Austin-Kleiner plan was adopted in 1964 and the Hatcher-Kleiner plan in 1972.