A lifetime of giving: Sister Jerome steps down but doesn’t slow down

By HAROLD GWIN

gwin@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

At 94 years of age, most people would have long been retired.

Sister Jerome Corcoran passed that milestone three months ago, and, though she said she will be stepping down soon as executive director of Millcreek Children’s Center and Youngstown Community School, she has no intention of slowing down.

In fact, she really won’t be retiring. She’s just going to refocus some of her energy and attention.

“I will be working on special projects for Millcreek Children’s Center and Youngstown Community School,” she said. She also plans to help the new executive director ease into the job.

It’s a job she’s loved for the last 35 years.

She was born in Chicago, but her family moved to Youngstown when she was 7, and she’s been here ever since.

She was teaching English and education at Youngstown State University when the city asked her to take over what was then its preschool program, she said.

“I thought I would stay a few months and get it started,” she recalled.

But she soon saw the need for additional services for the children and stayed to help get them in place.

“So, I never left,” she said, adding that the thought of doing something else has never entered her mind.

But she’s ready now to hand the director’s duties over to someone else, and a careful search is under way for her successor.

“I do not want this to fade out,” she said, explaining she wants a successor who shares her passion for doing what is possible with little urban children.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.