By Andy Furman
NKyTribune staff writer
It’s time for Round 2. We’ll call it The Name Game.
After months – make that years – hoping, praying and finally seeing the light for a new bridge to carry us from Covington to Cincinnati, well, it’s time for – a name.
We’ll dub that Round 2 of the Bridge Project.
And the Covington Rotary Club wasted no time with their choice – the late Kenneth (Ken) F. Harper, a lifetime resident and long-time public servant of Northern Kentucky.
The Ken F. Harper Bridge has a nice ring to it.
Harper was a member of the Covington Rotary Club – a 70-year Rotarian. He passed at the age of 95. He attended the Kentucky Military Institute in London, Ky., which like the phone booth and Buffalo nickel is no more. Likewise for 10th District School which he attended as a Latonia resident.
“I was the first Republican elected as a State Representative in my county, back in 1962,” he told the Northern Kentucky Tribune in a previous account.
He served as Secretary of State from 1971 to 1972 – and was a United States Air Force veteran of the Korean War.
Perhaps he’s best known for his nine terms as State Representative, his service as Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Public Information, Chair of Kentucky’s Board of Elections and Acting Secretary of State.
The Covington Rotary Club has named an award in his name.
“Should anyone donate $1,000 to the club,” past president Dave Meyer told the Tribune, “the award is won. And the monies can be cumulative.” The funds go to the Covington Rotary Foundation.
But the best thing the Covington Rotary Club has done to date is pushing for the resolution to name the new bridge in Ken Harper’s name – a deserving honor to one of Northern Kentucky Kentucky’s own.