Steven Fought Obituary

News story
By Mike Sigov
Blade Staff Writer

Steven Dean Fought, a longtime legislative aide for local Democratic Party elected officials, died Jan. 10 at his home in Nebo, N.C. He was 71.

He was recovering from a "nearly fatal" heart attack, according to the family obituary.

Most recently, Mr. Fought worked for the longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), from 2001 to 2014, at different times as legislative director and communications director.

He cared for "the common man," Ms. Kaptur said. "That's where his heart lay, common people, and he always shared their struggle directly."

Before working for Ms. Kaptur, he was a legislative aide to former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, from the mid 1980s to 2000, first when Mr. Brown was Ohio's secretary of state and then when he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's 13th congressional district, the position to which he was elected in 1993.

"Steve Fought lived and breathed his work," Mr. Brown said. "Few were as committed to public service - and to his beloved Detroit Tigers - as Steve Fought."

Mr. Fought was also assistant clerk of council of Toledo City Council in the mid-2000s.

Additionally, in 2005, he was a spokesman for Reform Ohio Now, a largely Democratic group that unsuccessfully pushed a constitutional amendment overhauling how Ohio redraws congressional and legislative districts, to mix Republican red and Democratic blue in order to create competitive purple on a map.

"He had an active political mind and a passion for politics," Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said. "He had a determined mind, a thirst for issues that came ahead of him."

In 2016, Mr. Fought unsuccessfully ran as the Democratic Party candidate for the Ohio 8th Congressional District seat vacated by John Boehner, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He later ran for Toledo City Council in 2021, also unsuccessfully.

"He was one of a kind," Ms. Kaptur said. "First of all, he was brilliant. He was just brilliant. He was the kind of person, kind of mind, that would have written the Constitution of the United States, that brilliant.

"He was also completely honest, he would make friends everywhere, and he was enjoyable to be with. But if he didn't agree with you, you knew it."

In recent years, he focused on volunteering for charities, most recently for the Arc of Appalachia, helping preserve a Hocking County habitat for pipistrelles, an endangered species of bats.

Born June 2, 1954, in Rapid City, S.D., to Ruth Hasis and Robert Fought, he graduated in 1971 from Mendon-Union High School and later studied literature at Ohio University and at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Mr. Fought then returned to Ohio to be a sports editor with the Daily Standard newspaper in Celina, Ohio, volunteering as a summer baseball coach for area middle school students.

He later got a bachelor's degree in history from Capital University, a law degree from the University of Cincinnati, a master's degree in business administration from the University of Toledo, and a master's degree in communications and leadership from Gonzaga University.

In his free time, he enjoyed rock 'n' roll and bluegrass music and traveling.

Surviving are his sisters, Cathy Ruhlen and Nora Fought.

Arrangements are by Sossoman Funeral Home, Morganton, N.C.

A private memorial service will be held at a later date.

The family suggests tributes to a local food bank or to the Arc of Appalachia.