Sister Jerome Corcoran to receive 2015 Pioneer Award

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Sister Jerome Corcoran of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown is the 2015 Pioneer Award recipient for her lifetime of service in children’s education.

She will receive the award during a program at 2 p.m. Oct. 2 at William Holmes McGuffey Elementary School, 310 S. Schenley Ave., as part of Founder’s Day in honor of William Holmes McGuffey, author of the Eclectic Readers. The program will include a student assembly, storytelling and music. It is closed to the public.

Both the Pioneer Award and the Founder’s Day program are annual events sponsored by the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society.

Sister Jerome founded Mill Creek Community Center and Youngstown Community School. She remains active with her newest mission, Sister Jerome’s Poor. The new ministry addresses emergency situations for needy families including the working poor. Her focus is shortages that hinder a child’s education such basic as groceries, transportation, clothing and shoes, books, supplies and fees.

Sister Jerome, who is almost 100 years old, was educated at Catholic University of America, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. She received a doctorate in education and research at Case Western Reserve University. She has taught at colleges, universities and the Diocese of Youngstown Schools.

Her awards include the Sargent Shiver Anti-Poverty Remedial Reading Award, B’nai B’rith Woman of the Year, Mahoning County Bar Association Annual Award, Ursuline High School Woman of the Year Award, Salvation Army Others Award, Ohio Department of Education Award, Chamber of Commerce William G. Lyden Spirit of the Valley Award and Ethnic Heritage Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

The WHMHS Pioneer Award recognizes outstanding leadership, scholarship, community service, contributions to the social, cultural, civic, and educational welfare of the valley, historical preservation and literacy efforts.

William Holmes McGuffey was raised in Mahoning Valley and published his first of seven readers in 1836, which are still in print today. Known as “America’s Schoolmaster,” his family homestead, located on McGuffey Road in Coitsville Township, is a National Historic Landmark. Now known as the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, the preserve totals 78 acres and was donated by the WHMHS to Mill Creek MetroParks in 1998. The Youngstown WHMHS chapter is the last in the nation and seeks to keep the McGuffey legacy alive.

For information, contact Richard S. Scarsella, WHMHS president, at 330-726-8277.