Inventory of the Harry Meshel Collection, 1970-2000

Biography of Harry Meshel

Harry Meshel was born June 13, 1924 in Youngstown, Ohio to Angelo and Rubena (Markakis) Michelakis. From the years 1943-1946, he served in the Naval Construction Battalion during World War II. After the war, he returned to Youngstown and attended Youngstown University. He received a B.S. in Business Administration with honors in 1949 and afterwards went to Columbia University and received his Masters in Urban Land Economics in 1950. He worked as a division manager for Waddell and Reed, Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri. He then returned to Youngstown to serve as Executive Assistant to the mayor in 1964-1968. He also taught social science and business administration classes at Youngstown State University and in 1969 served as Youngstown's Urban Renewal Director.

He entered politics in 1970 running for the Ohio State Senate representing the 33rd District. He remained in the Ohio Senate until 1993. In the Senate, he served as Majority Whip (1974-75, 1977-78), Majority Leader (1983-84) and Minority Leader (1981-82, 1984-90). He left in 1993 to serve as the chair in the Ohio Democratic Party, a position he held until 1995. In May of 2007, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland named Harry Meshel to the Youngstown State University Board of Trustees for a nine year term. He is a member of nearly three dozen organizations, including the William Holmes McGuffey Society, The Mahoning Valley Historical Society, The Stambaugh Pillars and the Trustee's Circle of the Butler Institute of American Art. He also has received awards from dozens of organizations, including the Ohio Education Association, Ohio School Boards Association, Buckeye Association of School Administrators and Ohio Association of Public School Employees. Harry Meshel was an avid supporter of NEOUCOM (Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine). He helped secure funds for the building of a technology center at Youngstown State University. The technology center at Youngstown State University, Meshel Hall, is dedicated to him.

Scope and Content

The collection was created and compiled by Harry Meshel. The documents in the collection relate to Meshel's involvement with the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Meshel Hall at Youngstown State University, and the closure of his career with the Ohio State Senate. The collection is artificial and is first separated in series by subject matter. Within the subjects, items are separated by type, and each type is chronologically organized. The dates in the collection range from 1970-2000, some of the materials are undated, but the bulk of the collection range between 1970 and 1988. There are gaps and materials are sparse after 1988.

Series I are documents that relate to Meshel and NEOUCOM. In this series are correspondences between Meshel and the personnel of NEOUCOM, the Ohio Board of Regents, and A.L. Pugsley, president of Youngstown State. There are also newspaper clippings that start from the idea, the groundbreaking, dedication, and expansion of NEOUCOM. There is a program that involved the Medical School Dinner to help finance and support NEOUCOM. And finally in the series there's a conceptual drawing of the Hippocrates Amphitheatre at NEOUCOM and a document for its fundraising. Series II relates to Meshel and Meshel Hall at Youngstown State University. A majority of the correspondences are between Meshel and Youngstown State University personnel dealing with the groundbreaking and dedication ceremonies. There are correspondences between Edmund Salata, Don Pesich, and Richard Norman, dealing with the negotiation of the architects and funds for the technology school project. Included are also newspaper articles, a cover of a newsletter which features Meshel Hall, programs dealing with the groundbreaking, open house and dedications, and an Undergraduate Information Update which mentions the new technology center. Series III includes newspaper articles of Meshel's last day with the Ohio State Senate in April of 1993.

Statement of Arrangement

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

Harry Meshel Collection, 1970-2000, RG 77/6/3, Archives & Special Collections, William F. Maag, Jr. Library, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio.

Detailed Description of The Collection

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