Beurt SerVaas, 94, former Indianapolis council president, dies
Beurt R. SerVaas was a successful serial entrepreneur who rescued the venerated magazine The Saturday Evening Post, but it was his decades of moonlighting in the civic arena that left his most lasting mark on Indianapolis.
He triggered a major transformation of city government as a key architect of Uni-Gov, which expanded city boundaries to the Marion County line in 1970, ushering in an era of local Republican dominance.
Later, he presided over the resulting City-County Council as its president for nearly three decades, across four mayoral administrations, with a passion and pragmatic style that was lauded by his fellow Republicans and Democrats alike.
SerVaas died Sunday, his family said, after bouts in the last year with pneumonia and a respiratory infection. He was 94.
The Saturday Evening Post, which SerVaas purchased and moved to Indianapolis the same year that Uni-Gov took effect, was just one of dozens of businesses owned or started by the wealthy businessman. He started his storied career as a Naval intelligence officer during World War II and then worked for the CIA.
His businesses included engine rebuilders, rubber refiners and the makers of cleaning products, including the brand Bar Keepers Friend. Often, the companies were struggling when he snatched them up.
But while he built his empire, SerVaas wasted little time in entering city politics — a reflection, his daughter said, of his belief that cities thrive or fail on the strength of their leaders.
"Here's a guy who's been a very successful businessman, and instead of standing on the outside and criticizing, he got in the arena," said Rex Early, a former chairman of the Indiana Republican Party. "He had the intestinal fortitude. … That takes courage."
SerVaas won election to the Marion County Council in the early 1960s, rising as part of a new guard of leaders in the state GOP.
It was in the role of president of that county body that SerVaas, working with then-Mayor Richard Lugar and state legislative leaders, crafted the Uni-Gov changes that consolidated parts of city and county government.
After he retired from the City-County Council in 2002, SerVaas' successors continued the work of streamlining government with the merger of Indianapolis police with the county sheriff's office, Indianapolis Fire Department's absorption of several township fire departments, and consolidation of township assessors' offices with the county office.
"Indianapolis has lost one of its greatest champions and chief architect of its success," said a statement issued by Mayor Greg Ballard, who was introduced to SerVaas a few years ago and made a point of visiting his business office occasionally for friendly chats.
"Beurt set a gold standard for public service in this city that all current and future leaders should emulate."
The City-County Council meets in the the Dr. Beurt R. SerVaas Public Assembly Room in the City-County Building, in honor of the man who guided the newly expanded 29-member body for most of its existence.
He served 40 years as a council member. In 1975, he was elected president of the expanded council and served in that role for 27 years.
Besides Uni-Gov, SerVaas was credited by his political allies Monday with helping make way for Indiana University and Purdue University's combined campus Downtown.
Reflecting on his political career, SerVaas told The Indianapolis Star in 2002: "I set about the job of rebuilding the city. I consider myself a builder. I built businesses. I built a family. I built a publishing company.
"I stayed on (the council) all these years to rebuild the city."
Praise for SerVaas came from all corners Monday. Gov. Mike Pence honored his civic, business, military and philanthropic contributions, while U.S. Sen. Dan Coats said SerVaas was "instrumental in the transformation of Indianapolis into the metropolitan gem that it is today."
Said Lugar, now a retired U.S. senator: "I admired Beurt SerVaas as a successful business innovator, but I treasured his loyal friendship in politics and governance because he was intelligent, courageous and always present to serve, in good times and bad."
On the other side of the aisle, current council President Maggie Lewis, a Democrat, said she "will forever be grateful for his leadership and vision that led to a fair and balanced political landscape for our city."
And Amos Brown, the radio host of "Afternoons with Amos" on WTLC-AM (1310), who often spars with Republicans, took to Twitter to call SerVaas a giant among Indianapolis leaders: "His wisdom will be deeply missed. He was an American and Hoosier original."
SerVaas' funeral will be 3 p.m. Saturday at his home church, Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St., with calling at 1 p.m. He will be buried at Washington Park North Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Dr. Cory Jane SerVaas, 89, who ran The Saturday Evening Post for decades, and by five children: Eric, Joan and Paul SerVaas and Amy Riesmeyer, all of the Indianapolis area; and Kristin Loomis of Santa Barbara, Calif.
SerVaas also is survived by 19 grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.
Two of his children in recent years took the daily reins of his remaining businesses — Joan at The Saturday Evening Post and Paul at SerVaas Laboratories, which makes Bar Keepers Friend products.
Joan SerVaas said she expected little to change in their operations.
Beurt SerVaas got his start in business in 1949 when he purchased a struggling electric plating company on Massachusetts Avenue for $5,000. He would buy about 50 other businesses in the decades that followed, in Indianapolis and around the world.
Later in his career, SerVaas' office at SerVaas Inc. served as a museum of trinkets he'd picked up during frequent overseas trips as well as photos of family members, leaders he'd met and political allies
Joan SerVaas, 59, recalled her father's voracious curiosity. Her mother went to medical school while raising their children, and Beurt SerVaas, who graduated from Indiana University, enrolled in its School of Medicine. He earned a doctorate of medical science.
Family trips for the SerVaas children often had a business purpose.
"I remember that our vacations were always either visiting a factory or a city government," she said. "During our first trip to Florida, our vacation was to Jacksonville because they had a unified city-county government. He was in the midst of checking out how other cities did it."
He stepped down from the council in the early 2000s, just as Marion County Democrats were beginning to gain an electoral advantage.
In his final years on the council, SerVaas worked on several issues across the aisle with Bart Peterson, the city's first Democratic mayor in the Uni-Gov era, after Peterson's election in 1999. Those included balancing the budget and teaming up to support the purchase of Indianapolis Water Co. in 2002.
Former Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark called SerVaas "arguably the city's No. 1 citizen over the last half century."
"He was the guy. He was the glue. He was the one who made it work," Clark said. "He was the guy who cared so deeply for this city, but he also cared about the council and the people that served on it, on both sides of the aisle."
Star researcher Cathy Knapp contributed to this report. Call Star reporter Jon Murray at (317) 444-2752. Follow him on Twitter: @IndyJonMurray.
Beurt Richard SerVaas biography
Born: May 7, 1919, in Indianapolis to Beurt Hans and Lela Etta (Neff) SerVaas.
Family: Wife, Cory Jane (Synhorst) SerVaas; five children; 19 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren.
Education: Public School No. 70; Shortridge High School; Indiana University, bachelor of arts, 1940; IU School of Medicine, graduate, 1970.
Career: Navy, American Intelligence Command, Office of Strategic Services, 1941-45; American Intelligence command in China civilian employee, 1946; magazine editor for Lionel Corp, 1946-1948; CIA employee, 1947-mid-1950s; vice president, Vestar Corp., 1948; founder of Review Publishing Co. and SerVaas Laboratories, 1949; bought North Vernon Forge, 1949; acquired Curtis Publishing Co. in 1970.
Political career: Indianapolis City Council and City-County Council for 40 years, serving 27 years as president, retiring in 2002; chairman of task force that created Uni-Gov in 1970.
Source: The Star archives