Former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, William G. Batchelder III, dies at 79

MEDINA, Ohio (WOIO) - William G. Batchelder III, who served in the state House of Representatives for 38 years and was the 101st Speaker of the House from 2011 to 2014, died Saturday at the age of 79.

The announcement came from officials at The Batchelder Company, a lobbying, government affairs and campaign consulting firm based in Columbus.

Batchelder served as the state representative for Medina County from 1968 to 1999.

He left his position to become a judge for the Medina County Common Pleas Court and a judge on the Ninth District Court of Appeals from 1999 to 2005.

After an eight-year absence, Batchelder returned to the House in 2007, serving as Chairman of the House Insurance Committee before being elected as Minority Leader by his peers.

He was then elected to become Speaker in 2011, and he remained in the position until term limits mandated his retirement in 2014.

Batchelder graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1964, as well as a Juris Doctorate from the Ohio State University College of law in 1967.

He spent 31 years working as a lawyer in Medina, Ohio, while also serving as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Akron Law School and as an adjunct professor at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban affairs.

In 2015, Batchelder returned to Cleveland State and at the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at The University of Akron to teach law.

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