African American Achievers to be honored

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County African American Achievers Association will induct six adults into its hall of fame and give scholarships to two high school seniors during its annual dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday at DiVieste’s Banquet Hall, 754 North River Road.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin will be keynote speaker. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased by calling 330-980-3410.

Franklin is a 1975 graduate of Warren Western Reserve High School and a 1981 graduate of Kent State University. He served as Warren’s 4th Ward councilman, councilman at-large and council president.

He served as service-safety director from January 2004 through Dec. 31, 2011. He also was an hourly production worker at General Motors Lords-town for 25 years.

He was inducted into the African American Achievers Hall of Fame in 1997. Franklin married Kenya Murray in May 2011, and they have four sons.

The inductees

Preston May is pastor and superintendent of Divine Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ on Vine Avenue Northeast. He and his wife, Maggie, have six children.

He is a 1972 graduate of Warren Western Reserve High School and McGraw Hill Institute of Technology. He founded Sonny May’s Photo-Video Studio on Mahoning Avenue starting in the 1990s. He began his ministerial career in 1973 at age 18.

In 2004, he started the Community Block Social, an event to get to know neighbors in the Vine Street area.

Pastor George H. Johnson Sr. has served as pastor of Agape Assembly Church on Nevada Avenue Southwest since 1993 and also served five years on the Board of Elders.

Under his leadership, the congregation built a new worship area on space in the former Westlawn Homes in 2004. Pastor Johnson and his wife have been married 32 years. They have eight children and 16 grandchildren.

Ru’Kiya J. Pugh is community liaison at Warren G. Harding High School, where she works in student intervention and community outreach. She is executive director of Project Gridiron Inc., a nonprofit youth program that assists youths and young adults during their transition into adulthood.

She initiated two programs, the Internal You, which targets teen girls; and Parenting on Purpose, which teaches parents how to establish better relationships with their children.

Pugh is a 1991 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School and graduated from Penn State University. She is married to Jimmie Pugh and has one son.

Judi Toles graduated from Warren G. Harding High School and is the mother of three children, seven grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren. She works at the Trumbull County Board of Elections and was recently honored for 40 years of service.

She has been precinct committee person for 40 years and is recording secretary for the Trumbull County Democratic Party. She is member of the Warren Strategic Planning Committee, 6th Ward Neighborhood Association, Trumbull County Mental Health Executive Board and Trumbull County Metropolitan Housing Authority executive committee.

Clifford Stargell is a graduate of Leavittsburg High School and attended Youngstown State University. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army and retired after 35 years with Delphi Packard Electric.

He and his wife, Freda, have been married 44 years and have one son. He has served on the steward board at his church, Grace A.M.E. Church and worked on the campaign to elect President Barack Obama. He is a presiding judge for the Trumbull County Board of Elections.

Santonia “Toni” McCoy-Williamson is a special-education teacher at the Lincoln K-8 school and has been employed by Warren City Schools for 30 years. She was the first black to serve as teacher of students with multiple disabilities in Warren City Schools, she said.

She is a 1974 graduate of Warren Western Reserve High School and 1982 graduate of Youngstown State University.

In 2000, she started a summer program for students with special needs called Summer Moments in Life Educational Skills.

Scholarship recipients

A’Tyra Reed is a senior at Warren G. Harding High School and plays basketball for the Lady Raiders. She was inducted into the National Honor Society in 2011. She has a 3.66 grade-point average and is ranked 36th in her class. She also volunteers at American Red Cross blood drives.

Patrick Flanagan is a senior at Warren G. Harding High School and is active in the high school band, National Honor Society and robotics team. He also is president of his church youth group and is a member of the youth usher board and youth choir.