Horace Dicken Cherry

Horace Dicken ("Dick") Cherry, died on May 15 in Adelphi, Maryland. He was 98.

He grew up in rural Illinois and received his early education in a one-room country school

near the town of Chrisman. He excelled in school, and after three years at Chrisman High

School, he successfully competed for a full scholarship to Wabash College.

Cherry was the first political science major at Wabash. He credited Dr. Warren Roberts, his

mentor at Wabash, with inspiring him to pursue studies in political science and a career in

public service. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa after five semesters and was selected to

be Wabash's candidate for Rhodes Scholar his senior year. He was the valedictorian and

commencement speaker of the Class of 1949.

Following graduate school at the University of Chicago, Cherry taught for ten years as an

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. At Baylor, he

organized the Center for Foreign Service Studies and served as editor-in-chief of the quarterly

journal Background On World Politics.

In 1962, Cherry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. A champion of voting

rights, he co-authored legislation to repeal the state's discriminatory annual poll tax and

replace it with permanent voter registration. Though his legislation failed to pass, Cherry had

the great satisfaction of later returning to Austin for a special legislative session called for the

purpose of abolishing the poll tax, after it was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal

court.

Cherry and his family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1965, when he became chief of staff to

U.S. Senator Ralph W. Yarborough during the historic 89th Congress, which passed major

civil rights legislation and other laws enacting President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society

programs.

Among those programs was the Model Cities Program of the newly-established Department

of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Cherry was recruited to head the Congressional

Services Office for the program and served there until the end of the Johnson Administration.

He returned to HUD in 1980 as Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Inter-Governmental

Relations, a position to which he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter and confirmed by

the United States Senate.

In between his stints at HUD, and prior to his retirement, Cherry headed the National Center

for Municipal Development, which provided federal relations and advocacy services for cities

and mayors.

In an interview with Wabash Magazine in 1999, he noted that the only institution we share in

an increasingly pluralistic society is our democratic form of government, which we must take

care not to weaken or undermine. He also stated that former President Carter had

demonstrated that "there should be no such thing as retirement when it comes to doing

good." He followed Carter's example in his own retirement, actively supporting a multitude of

charitable organizations.

He was preceded in death by his wife Elizabeth. Their loving marriage lasted for 63 years.

Church was the centerpiece of their family life. They were committed members of Our

Saviour's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Temple Hills, MD, and later of Perry Highway

Lutheran Church in Wexford, Pennsylvania. During their retirement years in Pennsylvania,

their proximity to their grandchildren was a source of enormous joy for both the older and

younger generations.

Cherry is survived by his sister Hilah and his three children, Mark (Beverly Meyer) of

Sherman, CT, Christopher (Stefan Brodd) of Greenbelt, MD, and Lisa (Dennis Ferguson) of

Dublin, OH, as well as three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A private memorial service is planned for August.

In lieu of flowers, friends are invited to make a memorial contribution to:

Wabash College

301 W. Wabash Avenue

Crawfordsville, IN 47933

Wabash.edu