Attorney, Lorain native Nichole Francis Reynolds speaks at Lorain Historical Society annual meeting

LORAIN — The Lorain Historical Society's 10th annual meeting hosted a Lorain graduate now able to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Nichole Francis Reynolds, Lorain High School Class of 1994, serves as the vice president and global head of government relations for ServiceNow, a cloud-based software company. She lives in Washington, D.C., and, in February, stood before the nine justices of the Supreme Court to be sworn in as a member of the Supreme Court Bar. But on Thursday, she faced a larger crowd as she touched on the foundation that growing up in Lorain gave her to chase her dreams. "I wouldn't be here but for the grace of God, for my parents for choosing to give me life and to invest and take time, to show me what's possible," Francis Reynolds said. "At a certain point, I recall them telling me that my head was in the clouds and every now and then I hear them say, 'We've created a monster — what's the next idea?'" She joked that now she has her own daughter, with her head metaphorically and sometimes literally in the clouds when the young girl competes on a junior Olympic gymnastic team. Francis Reynolds said she chose two quotes from Toni Morrison, a fellow Lorain native and Nobel Laureate. "'If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down,'" Francis Reynolds quoted. "I'd like to focus more on 'If you want to fly.'" She said Lorain is a special place to be from: giving her a foundation from a large family, a church family at Friendship Baptist Church and where she learned the importance of being honest, kind and respectful. She remembered older teens helping steer her away from the missteps they themselves may have taken, and often being told to listen to her parents. Some of her friends saw her ambition and pushed her to go to college, she said, even when they were staying behind. "Sometimes those are hard words to hear, but because of my foundation and because of my faith, I keep going because I know that there are other people coming behind me, including my children … who are looking to see what's possible." She remembered the auto industry's heyday during her childhood, including her uncle's voice growing louder when he would talk on the phone about the local United Auto Workers union. When she was chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, she remembered her uncle's passion when they worked on the cash-for-clunkers plan to boost car sales by giving drivers incentives for turning in old vehicles. Francis Reynolds remembered suggesting to Sutton the program should be open to all makes and models of vehicles, not just American-made cars. "Economists may say it pulled sales forward, other economists will say it gave a jolt to the auto industry. … And so this legislation is now part of history," she said. But the auto industry is a part of Lorain's industrial past, memorialized in the Lorain Historical Society's permanent exhibit at the Carnegie Center. Looking toward her hometown's future, Francis Reynolds touched on opportunities in technology, such as coding. It's a skill students can learn, retirees can take up as a side job or factory workers can be retrained on to redefine Lorain County, she said. Electric vehicles will need charging stations; artificial intelligence will need research facilities — why not here, she said. Francis Reynolds' second Morrison quote was "If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Writing that future book takes focus and forethought, she said. When she was staying at George Washington University during a 1996 summer internship with Congressman Sherrod Brown, she remembered her parents paying her cost of living. At the time, she was an undergraduate student at Eastern Michigan University, and Brown was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. When she got home, she began talking about going back the next summer, but her family said she would be in Ohio instead. She didn't take "no" for an answer and instead talked to professors and the president of the college to find a way to intern in the office of former U.S. Rep. Richard Gebhardt. "Focusing is really important. I knew that I wanted to be an attorney at a young age," she said. Next thing she knew, she was shadowing an attorney her mother knew at Wickens, Herzer, Panza. The world is small, and connections are available to those who push and keep going, she said. "Lorain will always be near and dear to my heart," she said. Lorain Historical Society Executive Director Barb Piscopo gave a brief overview of the second phase of the society's permanent exhibits, touching in part on some of the institutions near and dear to Francis Reynolds' heart. The organization's first phase, unveiled in August 2019, focused on the industries that brought people to Lorain, including shipbuilding, steel and auto assembly. The second phase will highlight the institutions those immigrants built — schools, churches, social clubs and neighborhoods all making up what would become the International City. The second phase's seven panels will cost about $220,000, Piscopo said. The historical society has raised about $70,000 thus far and hopes to reach its campaign goal by next summer. For more information, or to donate to the historical society's campaign, visit lorainhistory.org/donate or call (440) 245-2563. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.