Along the Way: Kent State naming park area near downtown after Ronald Pizzuti
The Lester Lefton Esplanade, the land bridge that links the campus with Kent’s rejuvenated downtown, is going to get a major upgrade with the development of Pizzuti Park on its northwest corner near downtown.
The park is named for Ronald Pizzuti, the Kent State University and Roosevelt High School graduate, who from his headquarters in Columbus, has built a large commercial real estate development company, The Pizzuti Companies, that transcends the nation.
Ron and his wife, Ann, were in Kent during Homecoming a week ago for a naming event hosted by the Kent State University Foundation that designated the site for the park’s creation. According to Valoree Vargo, vice president of Kent State Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement and CEO of the KSU Foundation, planning for the park is getting underway.
The park will be one of the features of a reconstructed East Main Street that will turn KSU’s front campus into a showplace.
Kent StateOfficials share update on East Main Street project planned for 2025
James Bowling, deputy director of service and superintendent of Kent engineering, says the East Main construction is scheduled to begin in 2025 and will take three building seasons to complete.
I cannot think of an alumnus any more deserving than Ron Pizzuti, who has always retained a soft spot in his heart for the Kent community and KSU. He served as a KSU trustee from 1987 to 1999, chairing the board twice. He also chaired the University’s Centennial Campaign that raised $265 million by its completion in 2012.
The Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center, an important asset for a university town, might not have been built, but for Ron’s commitment and leadership on the project. The Porthouse Theater and the Fashion Design and Merchandising program also have benefitted from his generosity.
Columbus has also been a beneficiary. For example, Ron and Ann have assembled an impressive collection of contemporary art that is housed in the Columbus Museum of Art.
With offices in Chicago and Nashville, The Pizzuti Companies, keeps growing. I remember years ago starting to see the company’s name in national business publications and at the time wrote that no one I knew of from Portage County had done any better than Ron Pizzuti. The lone possible exception is Rootstown’s Laura Spelman, who in the 19th century married a young Clevelander by the name of John D. Rockefeller.
I ran into Ron at the Kent State-Ohio University football game and he is just as nice as I remember him from school days in Kent. It is heartening to see someone like him so successful.
Ambuske donation
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote the beautiful watercolor that retired architect Alan Ambuske had painted of Riddle Block No. 1, the signature building of downtown Ravenna.
The painting was accepted in the Ohio Plein Air Society juried show at the Schumacher Gallery in Columbus. The show opened September 6th and continues through December 9th. The theme for the exhibit is “A Brush with the Past: Painting Ohio’s History.”
The water color is priced at $450 and Alan says if the painting sells, he will donate the proceeds to the Portage County Historical Society. If it does not sell, Alan says he will donate the painting to the Historical Society. Riddle Block No. 1, he said, “is a beautiful building.” It was the first of 11 building that Henry Riddle, the entrepreneur whose hearses were prized in the 19th century, constructed in the late 19th and early 20th century in Ravenna.
As a successful architect, Alan with his company developed a specialty for hospitals and medical facilities. In retirement, he has enjoyed, among other activities, sketching and painting scenes from communities he and his wife, Gail, have visited in North America and Europe. His work is good and has been published.
David E. Dix is a retired publisher of the Record-Courier.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State naming park near downtown after Ronald Pizzuti
