WARREN — Warren native Roger Ailes never forgot his Warren roots.

Because of that, the wife and son of Ailes, a Warren native who became a media magnate and founder and president of Fox News, took part in Sunday’s celebration opening the $700,000 Packard Music Hall elevator that the Ailes family helped to fund.

“He would take me to the home in which he grew up, to the Packard Music Hall, to the Hot Dog Shoppe, other places that shaped him,” Zachary Ailes said Sunday during the visit to his father’s hometown.

Roger Ailes died unexpectedly last year.

Zachary and Roger Ailes’ widow, Elizabeth, stood alongside several others Sunday afternoon to cut the ribbon on the much-needed elevator. It was funded in part by ACI Senior Development Corp., an independent foundation established by the Robert and Roger Ailes family to help finance the project.

The foundation provided $500,000 of the $700,000 needed to purchase and install the elevator and several handicapped-accessible restrooms.

Before his May 2017 death, Roger Ailes periodically came back to his hometown to visit family and high school friends, Zachary said, and to teach him American values of God, country and hard work.

The younger Ailes described his father as a man who went to places where the rich and powerful were, but was more comfortable at home with family and watching football games.

Elizabeth Ailes added that her husband appreciated growing up in a working-class family, in a working-class community and the values that environment instilled in him.

He cherished memories of working hard delivering newspapers, working in a steel mill and even serving as an usher and stage hand at Packard Music Hall, Elizabeth Ailes said.

“He believed in hard work,” she said. “Roger was a good husband, a good father and a philanthropist. That’s how I believe the world will remember him.”

The funds provided from ACI Senior Development Corp. for Packard’s elevator was the only project of its kind from the foundation, she said.

“We dissolved the foundation as soon as the funding for this project was complete,” she said.

The grant has been invaluable to the city because prior to the elevator being erected in the music hall, the only wheelchair-accessible seating was in the back row of the non-ramped seating on the floor. The balcony was accessible only by climbing two flights of stairs, and for some performances, the balcony provides the best and least-obstructed seating options.

Ohio Rep. Michael O’Brien, D-Warren, who helped to obtain the other $200,000 needed for the elevator from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission in 2016, said his interest in working to help handicapped residents comes from his personal experience of growing up in a home where his father could not walk due to multiple sclerosis.

“Being the oldest son, I think I was the only one of my six siblings to see my father walk,” O’Brien said. “So doing anything to help those needing help walking and getting around is important to me.”

O’Brien said creating more opportunities for people to enjoy music is not only good for the music hall, but for the city.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said making the needed connections between the Packard Music Hall and the ACI Senior Development Corp. was primarily due to the volunteer work of Pat McLean.

McLean also was important in getting handrails on the upper level of the music hall.

Franklin on Sunday gave Elizabeth and Zachary a Warren lapel pin as a token of the city’s appreciation for the gift they have provided the music hall.

Zachary is a freshman in college who plans eventually to go into politics in his new home in Montana, where he raise horses.

Elizabeth and Roger Ailes were married for nearly 20 years before his death.

rsmith@tribtoday.com