Chuck Scheper was named a Great Living Cincinnatian

Leyla Shokoeh
| Special to The Enquirer

The Great Living Cincinnatians are recognized for their business and civic activities at the local, state, national or international level; lead; awareness of the needs of others and distinctive achievements that have brought favorable attention to their community, institution or organization.

The 2025 laureates are: Jim Anderson, Dolores Lindsay, Chuck Scheper and Geraldine “Ginger” B. Warner.

Chuck Scheper is a grateful man. Perhaps that’s to be expected, 32 years after beating a devastating diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. Every year since has been part of a renewed lease. But it is more than that.

“One of the things I promised myself after that was I always wanted to look back five years and say, ‘I wouldn’t change a thing,'” Scheper said. “It led me to make some pivots in my career to take on some of the challenges and opportunities that arose.”

Like being the self-proclaimed “accidental” mayor of Covington for 14 months. Or landing in the chairman’s chair at Bexion Pharmaceuticals, helping to raise funds for an incredibly promising new cancer drug.

“I don’t think I ever had a resume,” Scheper said. “Because my jobs are kind of random connections (or) opportunities that would come up.”

Not that he wasn’t qualified. A graduate of Thomas More College with a degree in accounting, he began his career as a staff accountant for Price Waterhouse in 1974. Scheper moved to client company Union Central, then Manhattan National Life Insurance, followed by seven years at Pioneer Financial Services . He retired from Great American Financial Resources as COO in 2010. Then Bexion came along and he moved to City Hall.

But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Born in 1952 and raised in Edgewood, Scheper grew up in a large and loving Catholic family, the middle of nine siblings. He met his wife, Julie, and they married in 1977. They went in with friends to buy a property at Fifth and Russell in Covington, gutting the place, spending several years and thousands of hours renovating.

“It really started our love for the city,” Scheper said. “When we got married, I’m sure we were thinking, ‘We’re going to work a little bit, have a family, move to the suburbs. But that wasn’t the plan that worked in the end. But it’s still a pretty good plan.”

The Schepers spent 10 years trying to have children. After two miscarriages and many fertility treatments, they decided to remain childless. They turned their attention to mentoring, particularly through the Covington Partners Organization, which Julie, a school counselor, helped found and is now known as Partners for Change. Julie mentored a teenage girl named Lesley, and Chuck mentored her younger brother, Chris. The four remain close to this day, 18 years later.

“The slogan they had was ‘Mentor one student and change two lives,’ and it’s really true,” Scheper said.

In 1992, they purchased their next fixer-upper, the former carriage house of the historic Carneal House in Covington. Scheper had been promoted to president of Manhattan National Life Insurance. Then he felt a lump in his throat.

“Within a few weeks, (I) found out I had stage 4 cancer, and the books said it was incurable,” he said.

It was non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Scheper was 39 years old. Seeking a second opinion, he found Dr. Lee Nadler at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He suggested a clinical trial, which included a bone marrow transplant.

“We all fear cancer and I was no different,” Scheper said. “But there was something – and I can only interpret it as grace – that came over me, that once I met Dr. Nadler and hearing the aggressive approach he was going to take with the best chance of curing the cancer, I was relieved. I wasn’t afraid to die. I knew there was a good chance I would die. But it’s hard to explain… I said, ‘OK, I’m ready for the game. Fasten your chinstrap and let’s go.”

Scheper received chemotherapy for six months before the bone marrow transplant in Boston. He spent 30 days in the hospital. For two days, he had “mega” doses of chemotherapy – about 1,000 times what he had had in the previous six months – followed by three days of total body radiation.

“Nurses refer to it affectionately as a trip to Chernobyl,” Scheper said. “It’s effectively the equivalent (of) standing in front of the reactor when it exploded.”

Today, she is cancer free. He is still friends with Nadler, crediting him and Julie with saving his life.

And now, the mayor has bitten. In 1999, Scheper chaired a commission to review Covington’s operations. The “Scheper Report” would save money, but was largely unadopted. Fast forward to 2011. Scheper had retired. Two of Covington’s main employers were leaving. Union contracts were blocked. The mayor at the time resigned and Scheper was asked to replace him. He said no – at first. But then he thought about his own advice: Would he regret saying no five years later?

“So I became the accidental, reluctant mayor of Covington to serve out my 14-month mayoral term,” Scheper said.

Under his leadership, the Scheper Report was implemented, reducing the budget by approximately $5 million. Scheper has served in many board positions and has been instrumental in revitalizing Covington’s business district, particularly through the Catalytic Development Funding Corporation of Northern Kentucky. He invested early in Bexion and became chairman of the board, a position he holds to this day. Scheper continues to keep his promise to himself.

“It gives you permission to change, if change is needed,” he said. “Just to make sure you’re always doing things that are meaningful and meaningful.”

3 questions with Chuck Scheper

What advice do you have for the next generation of Cincinnatians/Covingtonians?

“Get involved early in your career and get a mentor if you can.”

Do you have a motto or creed that you live your life by?

“One of my favorite quotes is from George Bernard Shaw: ‘Some men see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and wonder, “Why not?”

Who has been an inspirational figure in your life?

“My father was a role model, a self-made man who had a big job but was almost always home for dinner.”