Youngstown's longest serving mayor laid to rest

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Patrick Ungaro, the longest-serving mayor in Youngstown’s history, was remembered as a strong leader who guided the city through one of its most challenging times.

Thursday’s funeral at St. Edward Church on the city’s North Side for Ungaro, 78, who died Saturday after a battle with cancer, brought together many people he mentored during his 14 years as mayor.

“He was a straight shooter, he was honest, he was uncompromising,” said Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge John Durkin, who Ungaro hired during his first term, which started in 1984, as an assistant city prosecutor. “He did a lot for the city, for our community, turning things around when they were needed. I look at his family and the people he hired and know he will live on through them.”

As mayor from 1984 to 1997, Ungaro helped revitalize downtown and create business parks – during a time not that far removed from the shutdown of the area’s steel mills that devastated the local economy – while taking on organized crime.

Edwin Romero, Ungaro’s law director from 1984 to 1994, said when Ungaro started as mayor “it was like having a new sheriff in town. Before he was there, it felt like others were running city hall from the outside. Pat let it be known he was going to put a stop to it.”

Before Ungaro, Romero said: “When people needed to make small or large decisions, they were approached” by those trying to influence them. “Pat put a stop to that. The environment changed for the better. He changed the culture of city hall.”

George M. McKelvey, who succeeded Ungaro as 3rd Ward councilman and as mayor, called him “an iconic figure. Pat was the best. Everybody loved him. Pat was a great mayor, but moreso than that he was a great guy. His No. 1 goal was to be a great family man and he succeeded.”

McKelvey, mayor from 1998 to 2005, added: “His legacy is bringing us out of Black Monday and bringing economic development projects to the city. He was the best of the best.”

Eric Ungaro, his son and a Poland Township trustee, said his father “treated everybody the same. It didn’t matter who you were. He treated everyone good regardless of race, color or creed.”

Jeff Limbian, the city’s current law director who served in that capacity during the final 10 months of Ungaro’s term and six years prior to that as city prosecutor and an assistant city prosecutor, said the former mayor “had a tremendous impact on me. He was and remains one of my heroes. He was a true influence on me. He changed the course of the city. He changed it from a mob town to a modern and contemporary city.”

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said Ungaro was “very helpful” when he started his term in January 2018.

“I watched him put people first and I want to emulate him in that way,” Brown said. “He was a courageous leader when you look at what he had to face. He fought against illegal gambling and other criminal activity. Youngstown is a better place because of him.”

Brown said: “I’m glad I had the privilege to learn from him and to have him in my life as a mayor.”

John A. McNally, who served as mayor from 2014 to 2017, said Ungaro “was a good person to talk to about the city and the challenges we face. He was a good guy to talk to about nonpolitical stuff. I grew up with his son Eric. Pat was a good leader and a better person.”

As for Ungaro’s impact on Youngstown, McNally said: “Everything we were able to accomplish was the result of what he did during his time as mayor. He had to face a lot of problems. He was dealing with the after-effects of the steel mill closing.”

After Ungaro had to leave the mayor’s office at the end of 1997 because of then-term limits, he retired. But in 2001, he went back to his roots in education, serving as assistant principal at West Elementary in Youngstown.

A year later, he was hired as township administrator in Liberty and held that job until he retired this past June.

Liberty Trustee Arnie Clebone said that while he and Ungaro didn’t always agree, “he was very supportive. He told us to always do the right thing and everything else would be fine. I’ll never forget that.”