BOARDMAN Scarsella will lecture about McGuffey at library


Staff report

BOARDMAN

Richard S. Scarsella will present a free lecture on William Holmes McGuffey at 10 a.m. Saturday at Boardman Library, 7680 Glenwood Ave.

McGuffey was a renowned educator and Youngstown-area native who first published the Eclectic Reader in 1836. The textbooks are still in print.

Scarsella is the historian for the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society, and his lecture is part of a new series sponsored by the Boardman Historical Society. The public is welcome, and reservations are suggested; call board member Dona Hammond at 330-726-0651.

Scarsella will discuss the development of the readers, their social and cultural significance on American education and society and the role of the WHMHS in keeping McGuffey’s legacy alive.

Generations of Americans were taught how to read using the anthology series, which consisted of seven readers, including a primer. McGuffey’s textbooks were considered one of the first and most influential reading series in the nation and led him to be called “America’s Schoolmaster” and “America’s Storyteller.”

Educated in Youngstown, McGuffey was raised on a farm in Coitsville Township, on what is now called McGuffey Road. His 78-acre homestead is a National Historic Landmark and was donated to Mill Creek Metroparks in 1998 by the WHMHS. It is now known as the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve.

Scarsella is a Youngstown native and a Boardman resident and has studied and traveled extensively in Europe, including the former Soviet Union. He is the Choffin Career and Technical Center vocational supervisor for Youngstown City Schools. A graduate of Boston College, he also has earned master’s degrees from Youngstown State University.

Elected to the governing board of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center in 2005, Scarsella was also appointed to the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center at that time, to the present. He has served as president of both organizations. He was appointed to the Mahoning Valley Regional Council of Governments governing board in 2017 and is also a member and former chairman of the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation Board of Supervisors.

Scarsella has been active in community and nonprofit work his whole life, and serves, or has served, on the boards and committees of many local organizations.

He is chairman of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society and president of the Boardman Historical Society, and he founded several Idora Park historical societies.

In 2005, he published “Memories and Melancholy: Reflections of the Mahoning Valley and Youngstown, Ohio,” which is still in print.

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