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RICHARD SCARSELLA ‘Everybody enjoys a good story’
Photo
Richard Scarsella gives talks that bring back forgotten memories. Photo by William D. Lewis | The Vindicator
By JoAnn Jones
BOARDMAN
Some people know Richard Scarsella of Boardman as a history teacher or intervention specialist. Others may know him as a board-of-education member or a former co-owner of his family’s furniture store. Still others may know him as the vocational coordinator at the Choffin Career and Technical Center.
Some may even know him as the author of “Memories and Melancholy: Reflections on the Mahoning Valley and Youngstown, Ohio.”
But you really don’t know him until you’ve watched the knowledgeable, enthusiastic and animated Richard Scarsella as he talks to people about Idora Park and Youngstown.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” he told his audience from the South High School class of 1953 recently when all their hands went up in response to his question, “Did you eat the french fries at the park?”
“They never changed the oil all summer,” he said. “They just poured new oil on top of old.”
“You’re lucky to be alive,” he said again as most members of the audience raised their hands to indicate they had ridden the three coasters in the park.
“The Wildcat was really wild,” he told his audience. “People broke ribs. The only thing holding you in was a leather strap that a 2-year-old could unbuckle.”
“You’re lucky to be alive,” he said to the audience members who indicated they’d been through the Tunnel of Love.
“Spiders, snakes and rats were in that water,” he said, “as well as spit and vomit. They never changed that water.”
“You’re the best,” said a member of the class of ’53 after the presentation was over. “I’ve heard you three times.”
“I’ve heard you before,” said another classmate. “You’re always so refreshing.”
Scarsella’s public-speaking engagements go back to the way he taught in the classroom, he said.
“History is probably the most-hated subject,” he said. “I made it interesting by including the social and cultural history. If you can engage a child or a teenager who has no interest in history, they can appreciate it then. I tried to connect broad scopes of information for students, and then people began asking me to speak.”
As a founding member of the Idora Park Historical Society, as well as president of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society for 20 years, Scarsella knows his Youngstown history. And he loves to tell people about it.
“I could go on all day about Idora Park,” he said, adding that his avocation of speaking to audiences has taken on a life of its own.
“I’ve been doing this for 40 years, about 50 times a year on evenings and weekends,” Scarsella said. “It’s a way to preserve history. I enjoy it.”
Scarsella said he grew up on Youngstown’s Upper West Side and was born when his parents were in their 40s.
“I was like their grandchild,” he said. “They would show me a whole different world than most children would know. … culture and history. I went to school in Boston, where I learned all about history. I traveled to Europe, and while I was in Moscow, I saw Lenin’s body in his coffin in Red Square.”
“Both of my parents had the furniture store,” he continued. “We would go to five or six weddings on a Saturday, the weddings of their customers’ children. I was exposed to all types of music and customs.”
“We were raised to give back to the community,” Scarsella said. “To the neighborhood, church, city, and alma mater. My parents would buy YMCA passes and give them to their customers’ children. They had a good philosophy: Help others and give back tenfold.”
Scarsella, who graduated from Ursuline High School, left Youngstown to attend Boston College, where he got his bachelor of arts degree in history and secondary education. When he came back home, however, he saw changes he didn’t like.
“When I came back to town, they were tearing down my city,” he said. “I came home for the family business, and the city had torn down a beautiful mansion to make a parking lot. They were tearing things down in the ’70s and ’80s.”
“It was one of those things where you can either talk about it, or do something about it,” he added. “As a citizen, you have power. You don’t have to sit back and watch. You can write a letter or make a phone call.”
Scarsella said he, along with others, helped raise awareness of preserving buildings as well as the history of the area. He became a charter member of the Mahoning Valley Preservation Society in 1984 and later helped to get Idora Park on the National Historic Register.
“I’m like the patron saint of lost causes,” he said of his desire to preserve parts of history. “We were able to get the McGuffey home site on the National Historic Register. But now we’re trying to keep the McGuffey Historical Society alive. There used to be over 100,000 members nationwide. We have 50 members here now, and most chapters have disappeared.”
Scarsella, who obtained two graduate degrees — one in special education and one in administration — from YSU, downplays the number of his elected offices and volunteer positions throughout the Valley. He’s been elected to the Mahoning County Educational Service Center and Mahoning County Career and Technical governing boards, he’s a former chairman and current associate supervisor for the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors, and he’s a founding board member and adviser with the Brier Hill Cultural Center, while he is also involved with several other organizations in the area.
“I used to play golf and tennis,” Scarsella said. “But now it’s not unusual to have two presentations in one day. I even did three one time. And I customize every presentation.”
“The art of storytelling is very old,” he continued.
“I bring back forgotten memories people haven’t thought about in years. Everybody enjoys a good story.”