John Rava

John Rava has been an active member of the St. Louis community for over 40 years, after returning to his home town from college, graduate school, and law school.

Professionally, he has been in private legal practice for that entire time, first with the Stolar, Kuhlmann firm and then with Husch & Eppenberger, LLC. He has specialized in corporate and real estate areas. He is currently Of Counsel with Husch.

He has been involved in local affairs in University City . He was one of the founders and then President of University City Residential Service. He served a term as a member of the University City Human Relations Commission. And he recently served on a joint Mayor- School Board task force, formed to bring together different governmental entities and citizen perspectives on broad community-wide issues.

He has been active politically, starting from the township level, where he has worked for 40 years, including two terms as President of the Hadley-Lincoln Township Democratic Club, and his current long-time position as Treasurer of the Hadley Township Democratic PAC. He has been a delegate to the State Democratic Convention a number of times, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1980. He has been an active participant in all but one Democratic Presidential Campaign since 1960. He was part of the legal team that worked to keep the polls open, after hundreds of voters were denied a chance to vote in the City of St. Louis in the November 2000 general election.

John served on the Board of the Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, including a year as President. He also served on the Board of the St. Louis Law Library Association, including a number of years as President. He served a four year term on the Missouri Bar Association Disciplinary Panel, appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court.

He is a long-time member of the ACLU. He is a member of the Sierra Club, and the Nature Conservancy. He feels a particular affinity for the Great Rivers Legal Foundation mission, having had the privilege of sharing the Noonday Club Wednesday table with Lew Green for over 20 years.

An enthusiast of the outdoors, and of Missouri 's natural resources, he enjoys canoeing Ozark streams and hiking Missouri trails. He and his wife Susan have taken numerous hiking trips, including to the Canadian Rockies, the Grand Tetons, the Colorado Rockies, the Arizona high desert, the Cascades, and the French Alps.

John is a graduate of MICDS, Harvard College (1958 major in government), the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (1960), and the Harvard Law School (1963).

John lives in University City with his wife, Susan, and their Bassett Hound, Rufus. They have three children and six grandchildren.