YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The focus on education that the late Marion G. Resch had during her lifetime endures more than a decade after her death.
Resch, a graduate of The Rayen School in Youngstown and Lake Erie College in Painesville, established the epymonious foundation in 2004, four years before she died.
“In her later years she revised her trust many times, tweaking what she wanted to have happen to her assets,” says Karen S. Cohen, vice president and senior trust officer for Premier Bank. Cohen handled Resch’s account when she was an accountant at Packer Thomas Co.
Resch’s husband, Paul, died before her. He was a partner at the former Butler Wick & Co., and the two were philanthropic during their lifetimes, Scott Schulick says.
According to Schulick, who nominated the Resch Foundation for the Legacy Award, her priority was providing an opportunity for students to succeed in higher education.
The Resches had no children of their own but helped some of their nieces and nephews go to college, says Ingrid Lundquist, a member of the Resch Foundation Board of Directors and a higher education specialist at New Castle High School.
“My understanding always has been that she had an
interest in the youth in Youngstown,” Lundquist says. “Knowing their help could be a stepping stone, that was something they wanted to do for the Youngstown community. They hoped that they could help to bring those talented, educated minds back to Youngstown and they would support the community.”
The Resch Foundation partners with six area institutions of higher learning – Lake Erie College, University of Mount Union, Thiel College, Westminster College, College of Wooster and Youngstown State University, which named its academic success center after Resch in recognition of her support.
Through these institutions, the foundation provides funds for scholarships and early identification programs to identify students from inner-city high schools, encourage them to advance to college after graduation and remove barriers that would prevent them from matriculating, Lundquist says.
“Whether it’s just getting them on a college campus, it’s doing prep work for an SAT – anything that could stand in their way – these programs are designed to encourage and support. And they go year round,” she continues.
Financial aid is limited to students who reside in Mahoning, Trumbull, or Columbiana counties and attend one of the partner institutions of the foundation.
The foundation has provided more than $15 million to support education, Schulick estimates.
“I think she would feel that we’re adhering to her dream of making a college education, hence a future, available to students from the Youngstown area,” Lundquist says.
Cohen agrees. What the foundation has accomplished is “beyond anything [Resch] would have realized it could do,” she says.
Pictured: Marion Resch