Kent State University at East Liverpool’s Wall of Fame committee announces that Thomas D. Snow is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Dr. Herschel Rubin is being honored with the Friends of Kent State University at East Liverpool Award.
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes Kent State graduates for their professional accomplishments and community involvement, while the Friends of Kent State University at East Liverpool Award honors individuals who work tirelessly to improve the community and support the university’s mission to provide quality education to the tri-state area.
Rubin and Snow will be recognized at the 28th Annual Wall of Fame dinner on May 6 at the East Liverpool Country Club.
Tickets are on sale now for the event and must be ordered online at www.commerce.cashnet.com/WOF For more information about ordering tickets, call 330-382-7416.
Also during the dinner, the campus will honor students for their outstanding academic and community service achievements.
Snow is a 1966 graduate of East Liverpool High School and began college at the Kent State East Liverpool campus, before moving to the Kent Campus. He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
He recently retired as the executive director of the Columbiana Metropolitan Housing Authority, after more than 26 years. Snow served as past president and member of the Ohio Housing Authorities Conference, and as past vice president and member of the Small Housing Authorities Insurance Pool.
Snow served 12 years as president of the East Liverpool School Board of Education, as well as 12 years as the president of the Columbiana County Board of MRDD.
He is the president of the East Liverpool High School Alumni Association and co-chaired four All-Class Reunions, as well as the ELHSAA auction. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the ELHSAA.
For the past 10 years, Snow has served on the Campus Advisory Board for Kent State East Liverpool and is the immediate past president.
Born and raised in East Liverpool, Snow has always been active in causes to benefit the community. He is the past president of the Columbiana County Community Action Agency; past president of the Southern Columbiana County Chamber of Commerce; and serves on the boards of Employment Development Inc. and Apple Grove Homes. He also served as president of the East Liverpool Area Jaycees and as a member of the East Liverpool Kiwanis Club.
Snow has been an active member of Trinity Presbyterian Church for 55 years, serving as an elder and a member of the Easter Pageant on the Hillside for all 37 years. He also is a 50-year member of Boy Scout Troop 12 and an Eagle Scout.
Snow is married to Catherine S. Snow and has a daughter, Heidi Snow, as well as step-sons Michael, Phillip and Stephen Davis.
A U.S. Army veteran, Snow served in Vietnam and earned the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service.
Rubin, who celebrated his 100th birthday in January, was born and raised in East Liverpool. He graduated from East Liverpool High School in 1933 and from the Ohio State University School of Optometry in 1937.
His father, Leon Rubin, owned and operated a jewelry store in downtown East Liverpool and it was in the back of that store where Rubin opened his original office of optometry. After a series of moves within the same downtown area, he settled in a space in the Little Building and practiced optometry there until he retired in 1985.
Other than a stint in the Army Air Corps medical division that took him to California, he has lived his entire life in East Liverpool.
In 1938, Rubin married Elsa Sara Alexander, whom he met at Ohio State. They had two children: Elsa Ann and Leon. He now has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Although Rubin is a proud OSU graduate, he and his late wife always supported the Kent State East Liverpool Campus. They contributed thousands of dollars to the campaign to transform the Mary Patterson Building from a women’s housing unit to an educational extension of the campus.
After his wife died in 2003, Rubin established the Dr. Herschel and Elsa Rubin Art Acquisition Fund that helped launch the permanent art collection that is now on display in the Art Gallery, located within the Mary Patterson Building. She was a well-known local artist, who was the first person to be honored as a Friend of the Campus in 1989, along with the late Frank A. Dawson, for their support of the campus.
Rubin donated one of his late wife’s paintings, “Fall Festival” to the permanent art collection and it is now displayed in the Art Gallery.
Before retiring, Rubin was active in the community, serving as a member of the Jaycees, Rotary Club and the East Liverpool Health Board, as well as a Boy Scout leader.