Luther Ross Love Jr., one of Cincinnati’s leading businessman, community leader and mentor, died Tuesday, Aug. 10, at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati after recently being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was former vice president of advertising at Procter & Gamble, former president and CEO of Blue Chip Broadcasting, and president and CEO of Blue Chip Enterprises. He led a number of community organizations, some of which he helped found as he did his Blue Chip companies. He was 64.

Ross Love Mr. Love is survived by his father Luther Ross Love Sr., wife Cheryl, son Jonathan (Germaine), daughter Ayanna, brothers Randall (Crystal) of Voorhees, N.J., Steven (Vada) of Cincinnati, Jonathan (Darthea) of Pine Hill, N.J., sister Martha Dickinson (Les) of New York City, four grandchildren, and close friends J. Kenneth and Rosa Blackwell and Yolanda Webb.

Arrangements are being handled by Thompson, Hall and Jordan Funeral Homes and were pending as of Wednesday.

“I can not think of a single person who affected the community as a whole and served the business community like my brother Ross did,’’ said Steven Love. “His biggest contribution was how much he cared for people and how much he worked to help people, especially those less fortunate than him in under served communities. He showed this with his work with Cincinnati CAN, with his unselfish volunteer work with many organizations, and with how he recognized those who normally do not receive recognition such as with the Unsung Heroes program he created on his radio station. As a member of our family, we looked to him for guidance and advice, and as a role model. He was always interested in our well being. We celebrate his life and the achievements.’’

On the verge of his college graduation, Mr. Love flipped a coin to decide whether he would finish studying for his final exams or fly to Cincinnati to interview with Procter & Gamble. Considering the impact his presence has had on the local community, it’s frightening to think what would have happened had it come up tails, stated information provided when he was named one of the 2009 Greater Living Cincinnatians by the Cincinnati USA Chamber of Commerce.

Born in 1946, Mr. Love grew up one of five children just outside Philadelphia. Despite growing up during a time when the color of one’s skin could lead to disparity, he once said his parents instilled in him that with a good education and a strong work ethic he could accomplish anything.

Upon his graduation from Syracuse University in 1968, Mr. Love moved to Cincinnati and began his career at P&G as a brand manager. After having responsibility for a number of iconic brands including Ivory, Downy, Cheer and Bounce, he was appointed vice president of global advertising. For 10 years, he oversaw the marketing effort of the world’s leading advertiser.

In 1995, Mr. Love established Blue Chip Broadcasting with the purchase of the local radio station WIZF. The company in six years went from one station to a 20-station group in the Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington and Minneapolis/St. Paul markets, and at the time the company was sold to Radio One Inc. in 2001 it was worth nearly $190 million. It was the second-largest African-American owned radio broadcasting company in the country, with Radio One the largest. The company not only became a voice for the African American community, it became a platform for community service. In Cincinnati, Blue Chip put on the annual Black Family Reunion Celebration, owned the Jazz Festival for several years, promoted student achievement and launched the market’s first African-American talk radio station, WDBZ, “The Buzz.”

Cassandra Robinson, who directs BFR operations in Cincinnati, said Mr. Love will be recognized at the upcoming BFR events because he worked with BFR founder Dr. Dorothy Height to bring the event here 22 years ago and was successful in having P&G support the event.

Through it all, Mr. Love has been active in a variety of national public service projects. He played a role in the Partnership for a Drug Free America’s efforts to develop anti-drug messages targeted toward African Americans and the Association of National Advertisers push to create the first content ratings for television. But his most prominent contribution to the community came when he initiated and co-chaired Cincinnati CAN, a group convened by the city’s mayor to address a range of racial disparities following civil unrest in 2001.

“We need the spirit of both giving and volunteering to continue to blossom here, and I believe it will,” he said. “It’s part of what makes Cincinnati special.”

Through his Blue Chip Enterprises company, he initiated the Minority Business Accelerator to help minority-owned businesses start up and grow. Blue Chip Enterprises is a principal investor in several companies launched by African-American entrepreneurs, including CardioQuickSys (cardiac-related medical equipment) and a cosmetics-related product innovation and marketing business.

Among other accomplishments, Mr. Love helped move the United Way of Greater Cincinnati as chairman of the Strategic Planning Initiative and of the Board of Trustees to a results model. He co-chaired the citywide effort by Cincinnati Community Action Now (Cincinnati CAN) to reduce racial disparities in education, employment, housing and the justice system, which included implementation in Cincinnati of Success By 6, the Minority Business Accelerator, Community Problem-Oriented Policing, Reach Out and Read, and the Arts and Technology Center. He was recently involved in Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, an organization that helps troubled youth make changes in their lifestyles. He and his wife, Cheryl, provided financial support for local arts and cultural institutions.

Mr. Love graduated with a Bachelor in Arts degree from Syracuse University in 1968 and later served on the Syracuse University Board of Trustees, as well as the Whitman School of Business Board of Advisors at the same university. He was a recipient of the university’s Chancellor’s Citation for Achievement in Business. He was a columnist for student publications at Syracuse University and a founding member, of the Student Afro-American Society, as well as a founding member of Omega Psi Phi on the campus.

Mr. Love was inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame, honored as “Great Living Cincinnatian 2009” by the Cincinnati USA Chamber of Commerce, awarded an honorary doctorate and delivered commencement address at Xavier University in 2003, was a 2005 United Way of America Million Dollar Roundtable member, a recipient of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati Peace of the City Award for community service in 2003, and received the University of Cincinnati’s Frederic Ziv Award for broadcasting public service in 1999.

Christopher Smitherman, president of the Cincinnati NAACP, said, “Mr. Love was a visionary and great Cincinnatian. He was a great example of how to be a great entrepreneur and philanthropist. Ross Love was an executive at Procter and Gamble. However, Ross Love had the vision of being an owner and not an employee. “Ross Love shared with me that one of his goals was to make other African Americans millionaires. He clearly saw capitalism as a tool to advance the interest of all African American people. He accomplished that goal with the highest level of business integrity.”