The Feast of Saint Ursula Liturgy was celebrated on Tuesday, October 24th at 10:00 A.M. in the school gymnasium. The twenty-ninth annual Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented at the liturgy. Each year, this award is given to graduates of Ursuline High School who have distinguished themselves by dedicated service to our school and to the community at large. This year’s recipients were Cynthia Herubin Francisco (’83) and John F. Herubin (’80).

Past award recipients include: Bishop James W. Malone, Attorney John McNally III, Mrs. Mary Irene Hoffman, Mr. Joseph Nohra, Sister Jerome Corcoran, Mr. William G. Lyden, Jr., Mrs. Mary Ellen Cushwa Wolsonovich, Monsignor Kenneth Miller, Mr. Alex Simon, Miss Paulette Petrosky, Mrs. Sara McClurkin Kennedy, Mr. Thomas J. Carney, Joy DiLoreto Brunner, Daniel E. Gallagher, Shirley LaCivita Phillips, Donald E. Foley, Sr., Judy Rochford Wexler, Daniel P. O’Horo, John J. Ridel, Mary Kay Buckley D’Isa, Richard Barrett, Sister Alice Marie Morley OSU, Monsignor John P. Ashton, Cynthia Ryan Reardon, Jim Beil, Sister Nancy Dawson OSU, Pat Storey Kane, Thomas Stabi, Marilou LaCivita Stroney, Dr. Thomas Shipka, Helen Lamb Lafferty, Father Frank Lehnerd, Sister Virginia McDermott OSU, M. Richard Varley, Jeanne McLaughlin Foley, Atty. Vincent Gilmartin, Maureen Collins, Father Tim O’Neill, Dorothy Ferrell Durina, Thomas P. Metzinger, Mary Moran Krygowski, George Banks, Margene Flannery Chambers, Monsignor John Zuraw, Kathleen Cunningham Conlan, Dr. Edward Novosel, Dr. Janet E. Del Bene, Scott R. Schulick, Suzanne Morrison Fleming, Bruce Joseph, Aimee Amendolara Morrison, Tom Murray, Sr. Mary Lee Nalley OSU, John Vitullo, Ruth Coleman Carroll, John Ulicney, Dr. Mary Lou Dutko DiPillo and Michael J. Fagert.

Cynthia Herubin Francisco attended Saint Edward Grade School and graduated from Ursuline High School in 1983. Cindy has worked for the City of Youngstown for the past 30 years in both the Youngstown Police Department and in the Engineering Department as the Executive Secretary to the Deputy Director of Public Works/Engineering Aide. She and her husband Ron have two sons, both Ursuline High School alumni: Jake in 2016 and Michel in 2017, both students at Youngstown State University. The Francisco family are members of Saint Christine Parish.

Her volunteerism and commitment to her Alma Mater began not long after she graduated from high school. Cindy is a founding family member of the Jimmy Herubin Memorial Scholarship at Ursuline High School. For more than 25 years, she co-chaired the biennial Jimmy Herubin Memorial Scholarship Pancake Breakfast held first at Saint Edward School and later in the Ursuline High School cafeteria. She was responsible for coordinating all activities associated with organizing and running the always-popular event such as ticket sales, soliciting basket auction prizes and recruiting volunteers that numbered more than 25 annually. These volunteers wore many hats including cooks, servers, ticket sellers, maintenance and greeters. In the 25 years of the breakfast, the cost to attend remained the same ~ quite a feat considering the cost of groceries and supplies increased each year.

In addition to her stellar work on the pancake breakfast, Cindy has also been an active volunteer on other committees for her Alma Mater. For five years she was the coordinator of the Ursuline Boys’ Golf Spaghetti Dinner which raised money for the boys’ golf team. In this role, she organized volunteers and ticket sales as well as solicited gifts for the basket raffle.

For the past six years, Cindy has chaired the basket raffle component of the Ursuline Annual Auction. She and her husband have sold tickets, solicited gifts and recruited other Ursuline parents and alumni to volunteer.

John Herubin, a 1980 alumnus, entered Ursuline after attending from Saint Edward Grade School. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Youngstown State University and his Juris Doctor Degree from the Cleveland-John Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. He is also a CPA (inactive) and maintains several financial licenses. After graduating from law school, John pursued a career in public accounting and spent 9 years as a tax consultant with Ernst & Young and later with Skoda Minotti and Reeves.

He then worked as a family business transition consultant with KeyBank in Cleveland acting as merger and acquisition liasion to family-owned and entrepreneur-founded businesses in the Great Lakes Region. John later worked as a Senior Finance Manager for Merrill Lynch. In that role he managed a team that delivered a wide range of financial solutions to over1,800 financial advisors and their clients in a five-state region.

Since 2006, John has been a Managing Director of EdgePoint Capital, LLC in Beachwood, Ohio, a leading national middle market merger and acquisition advisory firm serving family-owned and entrepreneur-led businesses.

With his sister Cindy, John organized the biennial Jimmy Herubin Pancake Breakfast. This event not only served a fundraiser for the Jimmy Herubin Memorial Scholarship but also served as an informal reunion of Saint Ed’s and Ursuline alumni. The Jimmy Herubin Scholarship, part of the Ursuline Endowment Fund, was established in 1991. Since its’ inception, more than 75 students have received this scholarship. The principal value is $90,000. John is currently a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants. He serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the Investment Committee for Notre Dame Schools in Chardon. He coordinates the Jimmy Herubin Scholarship Fund and is the Chairman of the Ursuline High School Endowment Fund, Inc. John is also a member of the Prevent Blindness NEOH Chapter Executive Council and Nominating Committee.

John and his wife Therese have three children: James and Veronica, currently college students and both graduates of Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin in Chardon, Ohio and Elena, a student at Mentor High School. The family belongs to Saint Gabriel Parish in Concord, Ohio and lives in Mentor.

Following the Liturgy and Award Ceremony, a reception was held in the Library-Learning Center.