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Long-time Youngstown mayor and Liberty administrator, Pat Ungaro, dies
VINDY EDITORIAL: For Patrick Ungaro, politics was an honorable endeavor
YOUNGSTOWN
Long-time Youngstown Mayor and Liberty Township Administrator Patrick Ungaro, who died of cancer early Saturday morning, is remembered by family and friends as humble and honest.
He was 78.
“I remember how many people he touched as an educator, a coach and in public service,” said his son, Eric, a Poland Township trustee.
“He lived his life the way you are supposed to - with humility and honesty and integrity,” he said of his father.
Others said much the same.
“I am very saddened by his death, said Liberty Trustee Jodi Stoyak, who worked with Ungaro for 16 years.
“He was an incredible mentor for me when I came on board in 2004. He took me under his wing. I’m going to miss him terribly,” she said.
He was a great public servant, she added.
“He loved being a public official. He was always humble and very easy to appoach,” she said.
Many people knew him in many different ways – as a teacher, a football coach, school principal and mayor - and as a wonderful father, husband and grandfather, Stoyak said.
“We agreed in a lot of ways about things. He was so connected with state and local officials, and he strived to introduce me to these people and made my job easier. I clung to him because of his knowledge,” she said.
“He was someone to be admired, and I feel a lot of people around the Mahoning Valley will miss him. People admired him for his integrity and his moral compass.”
A couple of Ungaro’s former football players at The Rayen School also fondly remember their former coach and considered him a father figure during their school years and beyond.
“He was an outstanding man. He was fair as a coach, stressed academics, and didn’t discriminate regardless of skin color, race or religion, said Derrick Penn of New York City.
“He looked after an awful lot of youth in Youngstown. He was a father type for me,” Penn said. “I respected him greatly. He was fair, incorruptible, and did the right thing.”
Dennis Mosley of Youngstown said he was in the eighth grade when Ungaro took an interest in him.
“Mr. Ungaro was a father figure for me. He saw something in me and corrected and checked me when I needed it. I had my ups and downs and I was possibly heading for trouble, but he was there for me. It created a relationship that has been tight ever since,” said Mosley, who has worked 32 years for the city and is getting ready to retire.
“He was a good man who did a lot for a lot of people. He gave me another chance in life, and even spoke at my 60th birthday party two years ago,” Mosley recalled.
Ungaro is perhaps best known by most because he held the office of Youngstown mayor for 14 years and for taking on the Mafia, which at the time was influential in local government.
“You have to know what you want to do, and let your heart guide you,” he said in a recent Vindicator interview.
He said his outlook on politics was the same as his outlook as football coach.
“You know what’s right and what’s wrong, and you stick to that. You have to love it, too,” said Ungaro.
Ungaro gained fame as the Youngstown Democratic mayor who railed against organized crime and spurred economic development in the city in the 1980s and 1990s.
He shook up the city’s administration by hiring a new police chief, Randall Wellington, and a new board of control, including Gary Kubic as finance director and Edwin Romero as law director.
“I think I changed the politics. I didn’t cave in to anyone, including the mob,” he said.
“Pat Ungaro deserves credit for the revitalization of downtown Youngstown. Too many people focus on the more recent developments and most relative newcomers don’t know the history,” said Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator.
“If it were not for Pat Ungaro and his team of Ed Romero and Gary Kubic, the west end of Federal Street would still be nothing more than a series of old boarded up buildings. Pat had the vision, guts and backbone to fight the battles needed to bring offices and their workers downtown on Federal Street to clean up the entire West End.
“It was that change in atmosphere, appearance and workforce that gave the restaurants and bars a reason to open up in the downtown. Pat Ungaro saved downtown Youngstown,” said Brown.
He also ran one of the cleanest administrations in terms of corruption, and said no to many rich and powerful people who tried to improperly influence him for their own selfish gain.
“We all owe him a debt of gratitude,” said Brown.
Calling hours are from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. to noon Thursday in St. Edward Church on Youngstown’s North Side, where services will take place at noon Thursday. Arrangements are being handled by Rossi Brothers & Lellio Funeral Home.