Jack Greiner

Once upon a time, Jack Greiner’s dad had an offer to go to the Indians organization. The day he was supposed to go, he hurt his back. And that was that.

Jack was not a good athlete himself, he says, but he loved sports. He was a bookish kid. One book he remembers was “Winners Never Quit,” a series of stories about athletes who overcame this or that obstacle. He tried out for different teams at LaSalle High, but never made the cut.

His senior year, he got the lead role in the class play, “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail.” He was on stage the whole time. Someone sitting next to Jack’s father later told Jack that his dad had a big smile on his face from the opening act to the curtain call. Years later, at his father’s funeral, Jack stood and said a few words.

“Dad never pushed me. He encouraged, but I never felt like I needed to be a baseball player or an athlete of any kind. He was really good at drawing the line between encouragement and pressure.”

He feels fortunate to have gone to Notre Dame Law School. He says it was more of a Catholic institution that had a law school rather than the other way around. One professor in particular had a big-time influence on him. He was a priest. Jack remembers him saying a mass before leaving for a bone marrow transplant, shortly before he died.

“He joked and was so at peace with what was happening ... one of my favorite parts of our mass today, right after the Our Father, is when the priest says, ‘And keep us free from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior.’ Of all the things you could pray for, we petition to be free of anxiety. That’s really the core, isn’t it?”

Jack believes in the notion that if a thing doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. He also has little patience for hand wringers. He wants to be the best lawyer that a father and a husband can be.

He and his wife, Kathy, have four children. Four years ago, their youngest, Ellie, had her tonsils removed. For some reason, she didn’t bounce back. She lost 30 pounds from a frame that already was thin. It was difficult for Ellie emotionally. Jack did what his father would have done. He gave encouragement. It took the form of a poem that became a children’s book. He titled it “Imagine When You’re Feeling Better: A Workbook for Hope and Healing.” The proceeds go to Josh Cares, a non-profit that provides companionship to critical care patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Jack also writes a thoughtful, provocative column, always with a gentle lesson, called “Everyday Faith” for the St. Mary’s Bell, his church newsletter. An attorney specializing in media law, he endeavors to be a reporter’s lawyer. He knows how to make stories safe without sanitizing them. Knowing how to write, he knows how to keep a story readable.

“You could make a publication absolutely safe if you wrote it like a legal brief,” he says. “But no one would want to read it.”