YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Richard P. McLaughlin was honored Oct. 8 at Youngstown State University with a scholarship endowed in his name.
McLaughlin, a lawyer and entrepreneur, died Aug. 9. He served a nine-year term on the YSU Board of Trustees, including two years as the chairman, and then served on the board of the YSU Foundation.
McLaughlin’s family announced the establishment of the Richard McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship for an undergraduate student majoring in General Studies in the YSU Beeghly College of Liberal Arts, Social Science and Education.
During a brief ceremony, his daughter, Molly Burdette, said her father believed in the general studies program, which enables those who didn’t finish college to obtain the necessary credits to earn a degree. Burdette is the general studies program coordinator.
The family also donated to YSU’s political science department some campaign buttons that McLaughlin had collected – dating to the 1960 election of President Kennedy. McLaughlin graduated from Youngstown College in 1958 and began collecting the buttons after moving to Washington, D.C., where he earned a law degree from Georgetown University School of Law.
In Washington, he worked on the campaigns of both John F. and Robert F. Kennedy, attended JFK’s inauguration and also was on hand for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.
The collection includes buttons for JFK, Robert F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Walter Mondale, Richard Nixon, Gary Hart and others. McLaughlin moved back to Youngstown in 1969. The collection includes a button for his campaigns for Congress in 1970 and 1972.
Pictured: Members of the McLaughlin family present for the ceremony are, from left: Brigid and Brendan Burdette with his sons Bennett and Jack; Kelly, Betty, Chris (holding the campaign buttons) and Gina McLaughlin, Molly and Jamie Burdette.