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Funeral director, businessman Sterling Williams appointed to port authority board
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Sterling Williams of Howland, owner and operator of Sterling-McCullough Williams Funeral Homes of Youngstown and Warren, has been appointed to serve as a board member of the Western Reserve Port Authority.
The port authority runs the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and encourages economic-development through financing and tax-savings programs.
The Trumbull County commissioners approved Williams’ appointment Tuesday during their regular meeting. They advertised they were seeking applicants for the volunteer position and got 12 responses.
Williams graduated from The Rayen School in Youngstown, Miami University of Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and Kent State University with a master’s degree in business administration. He is a licensed funeral director.
He also owns Twin Realty, Loving Memories Monument Service, Tax Master Accounting Service and is involved in several partnerships. He has served on numerous community boards.
Williams said he is “honored to be serving with an elite group of people very accomplished in what they do.” He added his greatest interest in serving on the port authority is its opportunity to encourage job creation.
His father, the late McCullough A. Williams Jr., who started the family funeral home business in 1951, was the first black Youngstown school board president, second black Youngstown councilman and first black Youngstown housing coordinator, all in the 1960s and 1970s, Sterling Williams said.
Commissioner Frank Fuda said he and the two other commissioners interviewed several finalists, but “Sterling just answered every question in a manner that impressed us,” he said, adding that Williams “wants to see the Valley improve. I think [he] will be a great asset.”
Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa added, “I could have made the call for a number of people that had a great skill set,” but Williams has bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a “diverse background,” Cantalamessa said. “He seemed like a good fit at this time.”
Williams replaces Scott Lewis of Liberty Township, vice president of Edward J. Lewis Inc. real estate, who has served on the board eight years. His term expired at the end of 2016.
The county commissioners in July 2014 asked Lewis to resign after the Ohio Ethics Commission issued Lewis a public reprimand in April 2014 for not abstaining from participation in port authority discussions involving a real-estate deal he brokered that earned his company $97,366 in 2009.