Capital grad Pride to speak at Ebony fete

Staff report

Youngstown

When John Pride came out of Capital University in 1963, the civil rights movement was just taking off.

So was Pride’s career.

The timing couldn’t have been any better for the Youngstowner whose strong family background, adolescent experiences and interest in social justice coincided with history.

“It sounds like a contradiction, but I guess I’d call myself an effective federal bureaucrat,” said Pride, who will be 71 in November. “Once I started working for the federal government, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. It was just a matter of finding the right opportunities.”

Although he had many titles and positions, Pride’s niche was helping other people.

That, partially, will be the theme of his message when the 1958 East High School graduate is guest speaker at the Ebony Lifeline Support Group’s 15th annual all-sports banquet on Friday at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Hall.

Another part of his talk will be about parenting.

From 1999-2003, Pride was chief of the family and partnerships branch of the Head Start bureau, with national responsibility for all parent involvement, fatherhood and social service components in the Head Start program.

After Pride retired from the federal government in 2003, he took another job as executive director of a private non-profit organization, the National Practitioners Network for Fathers and Families for two years.

Pride served as deputy director of the 1976 White House conference on handicapped individuals that led to almost all current Federal protection rights of persons with disabilities.

Now, Pride, of Silver Spring, Md., travels as a part-time consultant, doing reviews of Head Start program compliance with federal regulations.

Before graduating from Capital, Pride was a track team MVP.

Starting in 1964, he spent three years on the Washington (D.C.) Capitol police force.

With civil unrest brewing, Pride was recruited and served as a staff member on temporary assignment from the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare to the Kerner Commission, which was established by President Lyndon Johnson to examine and analyze the the wave of urban riots in the early to mid-60s.

In Mississippi from 1966-68, Pride was as a civil rights advisory specialist with HEW conducting investigations of public school systems’ compliance with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Pride will take a walk down memory lane and recall growing up in Youngstown in the ‘50s.

“Those were some of the best days in my life, but I’d also like to address some of the things that were going on, nationally, back then that we were really interested in that others may have forgotten about.”

Pride remembers working as playground director at Bailey Park, off Jacobs Road.

“A lot of young kids would want to be thugs and that type of thing, but one kid used to come by and I said, ‘This kid is different. He’s special and he’s going to be somebody.’

Pride was impressed with the young man, who was junior high age.

“I remember his name, but I never heard anything for years. Then I found out what great a young man turned out I was not surprised because of the way he came across. He stood out among those other kids.”

The young man was Rudy Hubbard, who was an outstanding football player at Hubbard before playing for Woody Hayes at Ohio State, where he became OSU’s first black assistant coach.

Hubbard later became head coach at Florida A&M.

“I never saw him again that summer on the playground. He was well-mannered and seemed like he had his life together. I wasn’t surprised what he accomplished later.”

A playground co-director at the time was Darlene Kimbrough, who later became Darlene Rogers and served on city council.

One of Pride’s honors over the years was his selection by the Washington (D.C.) Urban League as one of the top 50 fathers/role models in its area.

He takes pride in his family, including his son, Curtis.

“One of the greatest things I’ve done is not so much my accomplishments, but raising kids,” he said, noting that his son was the first deaf person to play baseball in the major leagues in almost 60 years, starting with his debut with the Montreal Expos in 1993.

Curtis earned the equivalent of seven full-time major league seasons during a pro career that ended in 2006. He is now head baseball coach at Gallaudet University in D.C.

In 1992, Pride traveled to Harrisburg, Pa., where his son’s Binghamton (N.Y.) Mets Class AA team was playing.

“I noticed that Harrisburg had a kid on the roster with the last name of Kosco. After the game, I asked him if he was related to ‘Pudge,’ John Pride said of Andy Kosco, a former teammate of Pride’s whose nickname was Pudge. The Harrisburg player was a relative.

“I met Andy and we hugged and reminisced and talked about old times. It was nice seeing him again.”

Pride said his 37 years of federal service were very rewarding.

“I was on the front lines at the right time for a lot of major social changes that eventually resulted in legislative changes.

“I didn’t become rich, but I accomplished a lot of social good and accomplished as lot as a parent because I’ve had successful children. I wouldn’t trade a thing.”

John and Sallie Curtis Pride, his wife of 47 years, have a daughter who is a social worker and a daughter who is a senior editor with a New York publishing company. An adopted daughter is currently a college student.