Michael Robert Graeff

Michael Robert “Mike” Graeff Michael Robert “Mike” Graeff, 67, of Akron, Ohio, died on October 23, 2026, in Akron. Mike was born on June 12, 1959, to Robert Graeff and Elizabeth Featherston Graeff, and was raised by his father and second mother, Mary Ellen Graeff.

He grew up in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, and Roanoke, Virginia, before his family settled outside Pittsburgh. There he ran track and played football at Bethel Park High School. He went on to the University of Pittsburgh, where he ran the hurdles and earned his degree in electrical engineering, and he stayed a Pitt Panthers football fan for the rest of his life.

Mike built a career as an electrical engineer that took him across several states and companies, with stops in Pascagoula, Mississippi; Sellersburg, Indiana; Lewes, Delaware; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Danville, California, and Canton, Ohio. He was an outgoing businessman who never met a stranger, had a love of disco dancing and doing the robot, and he was as at home with his duck hunting buddies as with his football friends. 

His great love was the outdoors. He fished for anything that would bite and pursued ducks from Arkansas, Canada, western Tennessee, and California. He was deeply involved in Ducks Unlimited chapters in Tennessee, California, and Ohio. What he loved most about duck hunting was watching his Labrador retrievers work. He trained Sheba, Feather, and Teal himself from puppies, and Sheba and Feather earned blue ribbons in field trials from the North American Hunting Retriever Association.

He passed his competitive spirit and his love of the outdoors on to his children, and he was an active presence in their lives through youth sports, high school, and college. His son, Ben, played football at Harvard. His daughter, Biz, captained the varsity swim team at the U.S. Naval Academy and now serves as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Mike is survived by his wife, Debbie Clem Graeff, her children, Alexis Clem, Evan Clem and Alyssa Clem; his children, Ben Graeff (Eliza) and Elizabeth “Biz” Guthmann (Joe); their mother, Beth Ann Shay Graeff; his grandchildren, Marie and Margo Graeff and Ava Guthmann; his father, Robert Graeff; his siblings, Sallie(Paul), Karen(Roger), Chrissy(Gary), Linda(Mike), Jenny(Scott), Dan(Gloria); and a large extended family.

He was predeceased in death by his mother, Elizabeth Featherston Graeff, and his second mother, Mary Ellen Graeff.

Visitation will be 10:00 until 12:00 p.m., Saturday, November 14, 2026 at the Donovan Funeral Home, 17 Southwest Ave. (On the Historic Tallmadge Circle).

Memorial service will follow visitation at 12:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Ducks Unlimited (ducks.org).