Cermak, Albina Rose, 1904-1978

Albina Rose Cermak (1904-1978) was a leader in Cleveland Republican Party activities and civic affairs. Born in Cleveland, she was the daughter of Frank J. and Rose Cermak, a Republican precinct committeeman and a suffragette, respectively.

Albina Cermak was educated at St. Agnes School, Clark School, Lincold High School, and was for a brief time enrolled as a nurse trainee at Mt. Sinai Hospital, until her mother's ill health forced her to quit that course of study to become a bookkeeper, secretary and buyer for the family dry goods store. In 1927 the family store was sold and she became a clerk typist for Waible Hardware and Sheet Metal Co. In 1933 she left that job to become a bookkeeper for the Cleveland Publuc Utilities Department, rising to the position of supervisor of the Addressograph department to become vice chairman and secretary of the Cuyahoga County Republican Central and Executive committees and chairman of the Republican Women's Organization of Cuyahoga County. In 1946 she also became a board member of the Cuyahoga of County Board of Elections. She held these three jobs until 1953. Concurrently she held offices as precinct committeewoman, 1925-1953; board president and secretary of the Ohio Association of Elected Officials, 1948-1953; and, from 1951-1953, board member of the National Federation of Republican Women's Clubs. In 1940, 1944 and 1952 she was a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

From 1953-1961 she served as United States Collector of customs for district forty-one. In 1961 she resigned that post to run as the Republican candidate for mayor of Cleveland. She was defeated in that election by incumbent Anthony J. Celebreeze. In 1962 she ran for state senator, again unsuccessfully. Her last political campaign was for clerk of Cleveland Municipal Court which she list in 1964. From 1963 until her death in 1978 she served in a series of appointed positions and remained an appointed secretary of the Ohio Real Estate Commission; during 1964-1965 she served as the bailiff in Common Pleas Court, Cuyahoga County. From and in 1966 she was appointed to the Ohio Govenor's Committee on the Status of Women with which she was associated until her death. President Nixon appointed her delegate at large to the White House Conference on Aging in 1971. She was also a member of seventy-four Republican clubs in and around the city of Cleveland.

Her involvement in civic affairs included membership on the board of such organizations as the Women's City Club, the Catholic Board of Education, and the De Paul Center for Families and Children. She was President of the Cuyahoga Basebelles, Inc. She was a member of the Cleveland League of Women Voters, County Action Committee, the Coterie of Saint Augustine's Manor and the Catholic Federation of Women's Clubs of Cleveland, as well as numerous ethnic, religious and professional women's organizations.