James L. Cherry Jr. of West Chester , 77, passed away on May 28, 2014, at Chester County Hospital. Born in 1936 in Bellefonte, Pa., he was the son of the late James Linton and Edna (Hoffman) Cherry. He was a graduate of Abington High School and Pennsylvania Military College (Widerner University). James served honorably as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy on board the Intrepid and Wasp aircraft carriers as a HU-2 pilot, and as a structural consulting engineer. James was a retired vice president of Kuljian Corporation, partner of Cherry & Heal, and James L. Cherry, Jr. PE Consultant.
Thoughts about our Senior Project and James Cherry:
Proposed Redevelopment of Penn's Landing
We loved the senior project. It is where we learned about planning as a process and a profession, making a formal technical presentation and working on a project as a team (Jim Cherry, Albino Molino and myself). We also learned about taking personal initiative and the beauty and effectiveness of multimedia presentations. We learned about the joys of reading a body of literature, small harbor and marina development and becoming a quasi expert, knowing more than your advisor about a topic and best of all being able to assemble and process technical data to make intuitive leaps into alternative future realities. This was not solving equations and deriving formulas, this was thinking and problem solving in the real world and I loved it.
Our senior project was a redevelopment plan for a section of Chester, Pennsylvania below the Central Business District (CBD) near what was the original Penn’s landing site. The starting focus of our project suggested by the Chester Urban Renewal Director was to design a marina at the intersection of Delaware River and Chester River.
After obtaining background data and looking at the site, the study team thought that a project expansion was in order. We thought that the city could do more with the site than just a marina. We got an approval from our project advisor Leonard Mann who was also the head of the Civil Engineering program and my advisor and ventured into the unexplored state-of-the-art topic of urban renewal and redevelopment. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development was started on Sept. 9, 1965 just as we were starting our project. A year later, we would have been able to use them as an information resource for our project. After several weeks of discussion and study of the problem, it was decided to expand the project area to include the entire area on the Chester River up to Sixth Street. We felt that Chester needed an open corridor from the CBD to the waterfront. We also got a jump on the urban parks concept of bordering waterways with people friendly urban amenities.
Chester is a very poor city. We felt that linking the residential area to the waterway was perhaps the last opportunity to reestablish the residential community with the river and improve the quality of the local environment. The park area, which was the central focus of our plan, would include a marina, restaurant, motel, and the William Penn monument. We also thought that it could be a good area for a municipal swimming pool. This park would not only to enhance the quality of life in the city but also permit the construction of new housing along the edges of the park.
We did historical research on the city. We also looked up the standard statistical tables and trends in past and current census data. The city owned almost 50% of the land in the project area along Third Street and planned expansion of the industrial highway would remove a number of existing dilapidated structures.
I took some photographs with my Brownie camera and we used them in the final report to show existing site conditions.
In the fall semester, we were also taking a course that Professor Mann was teaching entitled “ Civil Engineering and Human Ecology”. It was the only course that talked about a wide range of real world civil engineering problems and solutions. We had a huge and expensive book ($40) entitled Design: Data Book for Civil Engineers by Elwyn E. Seelye. John Wiley and Sons published it in 1940 but the third edition was printed in 1960. I loved this book and still have it. It is filled with workable answers to problems that civil engineers would face. We used the Human Ecology course to talk about some of the design problems we uncovered on our Chester project.
We examined the site, categorized what was there and who lived there. Only a few people were living in the area. We also spoke with some landowners in Chester, some local business people and some officials in the City Hall. We also reviewed an economic study for the CBD conducted by Walker and Murray.
We met throughout the fall and generated some alternatives ideas for the site. We got topographic maps of the site so we could look at runoff, drainage, and utility infrastructure. We suggested rebuilding or repairing a railroad bridge that went over the over the river. This was the first time that I had given any thought to infrastructure maintenance. Why didn’t the railroad know that this bridge needed repair?
We would meet regularly with Professor Mann in his office and sometimes Albino and I would meet with Jim Cherry out at his house in suburban Delaware Co. Jim had been in the US Air force and was an older civilian student. He was married and had five children (two sets of twins). His father worked for a large engineering firm in Philadelphia and his wife’s father also worked for a large engineering company. He was a serious and bright student but was willing to let Albino and I suffer over the conceptualization of the project and the design and production of the final report. He was like a senior partner that agreed to the decisions as we moved toward the presentation day. He was well connected to the profession and indicated that he understood how to make a quality presentation. So it turned out to be very valuable for the project when he volunteered to make the site plan model for our project. I had assumed that we would do a large site plan drawing. As we got closer to our final deadline, Albino and I were nervous about what Jim was doing on the model building, especially after he had rejected our offers to come out and help him with his work.
He delivered the model the day before the presentation and it was superb and professional. It really helped our presentation. It was a three dimensional fiberboard graphic of our plans for the project.
I was awed by the professionalism of the work. Most people were.
I had fun working on this project and actually learned a number of important things. But in retrospect, even though we put tremendous effort into the process and product, we were, knowing what I now know, really superficial and naive. We did not do really good cost analysis or market analysis or even think about how the City, State, Federal Government or private sector would pay for this project.
Our presentation got nice play in the local press with a photo of the model. Dr. Murphy and the audience really liked our presentation, even though we had a slight stumble on answering the Mayor’s questions on project costs. We said that this was conceptual plan that would require good cost analysis or market analysis in the next phase.
Jim: Thank you for the very interesting history of your senior project working with Jim Cherry. I did not know Jim well but can surely admire and respect him for being so dedicated to earn his degree with a family to support. And my being a twin myself I can only imagine what it was like for Jim and his wife to have two sets plus another child! Good man, that's for sure!
I can't say that I knew James Cherry, but the fact that he was a USN veteran and a distunguished member of our class PMC '66 "the Best Class" it was an honor to have him as a member. The Senior Project comments by Jim Sinclair is proof that he learned, understood and put to good use what it means to give back to ones community where you live, work, play and oh by the way become educated. James Cherry we salute you!.
Jim, Thank you for your insightful note on James L. Cherry, Jr. As cadets, most of us had very little contact with the civilian students - so your comments help us all widen our perspective of our fellow students... who did not attend morning formation or stand in line with us at 8:30 in the evening for the steak and cheese hoagie deliveries.
I never met James Cherry personally, but through your thoughts and the comments about him from others - I have gained an awareness. So to this new-found classmate : May God bless him and his family.
D. Clark Wonderland
From Walt Hempel:
James L. Cherry Jr. of West Chester , 77, passed away on May 28, 2014, at Chester County Hospital. Born in 1936 in Bellefonte, Pa., he was the son of the late James Linton and Edna (Hoffman) Cherry. He was a graduate of Abington High School and Pennsylvania Military College (Widerner University). James served honorably as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy on board the Intrepid and Wasp aircraft carriers as a HU-2 pilot, and as a structural consulting engineer. James was a retired vice president of Kuljian Corporation, partner of Cherry & Heal, and James L. Cherry, Jr. PE Consultant.
Edward F. Jr. Farrell
May our Classmate Mr. James L. Cherry, Jr. Rest in Peace! Thank you for your Navy Service!
James A. Sinclair
Thoughts about our Senior Project and James Cherry:
Proposed Redevelopment of Penn's Landing
We loved the senior project. It is where we learned about planning as a process and a profession, making a formal technical presentation and working on a project as a team (Jim Cherry, Albino Molino and myself). We also learned about taking personal initiative and the beauty and effectiveness of multimedia presentations. We learned about the joys of reading a body of literature, small harbor and marina development and becoming a quasi expert, knowing more than your advisor about a topic and best of all being able to assemble and process technical data to make intuitive leaps into alternative future realities. This was not solving equations and deriving formulas, this was thinking and problem solving in the real world and I loved it.
Our senior project was a redevelopment plan for a section of Chester, Pennsylvania below the Central Business District (CBD) near what was the original Penn’s landing site. The starting focus of our project suggested by the Chester Urban Renewal Director was to design a marina at the intersection of Delaware River and Chester River.
After obtaining background data and looking at the site, the study team thought that a project expansion was in order. We thought that the city could do more with the site than just a marina. We got an approval from our project advisor Leonard Mann who was also the head of the Civil Engineering program and my advisor and ventured into the unexplored state-of-the-art topic of urban renewal and redevelopment. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development was started on Sept. 9, 1965 just as we were starting our project. A year later, we would have been able to use them as an information resource for our project. After several weeks of discussion and study of the problem, it was decided to expand the project area to include the entire area on the Chester River up to Sixth Street. We felt that Chester needed an open corridor from the CBD to the waterfront. We also got a jump on the urban parks concept of bordering waterways with people friendly urban amenities.
Chester is a very poor city. We felt that linking the residential area to the waterway was perhaps the last opportunity to reestablish the residential community with the river and improve the quality of the local environment. The park area, which was the central focus of our plan, would include a marina, restaurant, motel, and the William Penn monument. We also thought that it could be a good area for a municipal swimming pool. This park would not only to enhance the quality of life in the city but also permit the construction of new housing along the edges of the park.
We did historical research on the city. We also looked up the standard statistical tables and trends in past and current census data. The city owned almost 50% of the land in the project area along Third Street and planned expansion of the industrial highway would remove a number of existing dilapidated structures.
I took some photographs with my Brownie camera and we used them in the final report to show existing site conditions.
In the fall semester, we were also taking a course that Professor Mann was teaching entitled “ Civil Engineering and Human Ecology”. It was the only course that talked about a wide range of real world civil engineering problems and solutions. We had a huge and expensive book ($40) entitled Design: Data Book for Civil Engineers by Elwyn E. Seelye. John Wiley and Sons published it in 1940 but the third edition was printed in 1960. I loved this book and still have it. It is filled with workable answers to problems that civil engineers would face. We used the Human Ecology course to talk about some of the design problems we uncovered on our Chester project.
We examined the site, categorized what was there and who lived there. Only a few people were living in the area. We also spoke with some landowners in Chester, some local business people and some officials in the City Hall. We also reviewed an economic study for the CBD conducted by Walker and Murray.
We met throughout the fall and generated some alternatives ideas for the site. We got topographic maps of the site so we could look at runoff, drainage, and utility infrastructure. We suggested rebuilding or repairing a railroad bridge that went over the over the river. This was the first time that I had given any thought to infrastructure maintenance. Why didn’t the railroad know that this bridge needed repair?
We would meet regularly with Professor Mann in his office and sometimes Albino and I would meet with Jim Cherry out at his house in suburban Delaware Co. Jim had been in the US Air force and was an older civilian student. He was married and had five children (two sets of twins). His father worked for a large engineering firm in Philadelphia and his wife’s father also worked for a large engineering company. He was a serious and bright student but was willing to let Albino and I suffer over the conceptualization of the project and the design and production of the final report. He was like a senior partner that agreed to the decisions as we moved toward the presentation day. He was well connected to the profession and indicated that he understood how to make a quality presentation. So it turned out to be very valuable for the project when he volunteered to make the site plan model for our project. I had assumed that we would do a large site plan drawing. As we got closer to our final deadline, Albino and I were nervous about what Jim was doing on the model building, especially after he had rejected our offers to come out and help him with his work.
He delivered the model the day before the presentation and it was superb and professional. It really helped our presentation. It was a three dimensional fiberboard graphic of our plans for the project.
I was awed by the professionalism of the work. Most people were.
I had fun working on this project and actually learned a number of important things. But in retrospect, even though we put tremendous effort into the process and product, we were, knowing what I now know, really superficial and naive. We did not do really good cost analysis or market analysis or even think about how the City, State, Federal Government or private sector would pay for this project.
Our presentation got nice play in the local press with a photo of the model. Dr. Murphy and the audience really liked our presentation, even though we had a slight stumble on answering the Mayor’s questions on project costs. We said that this was conceptual plan that would require good cost analysis or market analysis in the next phase.
W. David III Eckard
Jim: Thank you for the very interesting history of your senior project working with Jim Cherry. I did not know Jim well but can surely admire and respect him for being so dedicated to earn his degree with a family to support. And my being a twin myself I can only imagine what it was like for Jim and his wife to have two sets plus another child! Good man, that's for sure!
John J. Lynch
I can't say that I knew James Cherry, but the fact that he was a USN veteran and a distunguished member of our class PMC '66 "the Best Class" it was an honor to have him as a member. The Senior Project comments by Jim Sinclair is proof that he learned, understood and put to good use what it means to give back to ones community where you live, work, play and oh by the way become educated. James Cherry we salute you!.
Henry Faryna
Jim, Thank you for your insightful note on James L. Cherry, Jr. As cadets, most of us had very little contact with the civilian students - so your comments help us all widen our perspective of our fellow students... who did not attend morning formation or stand in line with us at 8:30 in the evening for the steak and cheese hoagie deliveries.
I never met James Cherry personally, but through your thoughts and the comments about him from others - I have gained an awareness. So to this new-found classmate : May God bless him and his family.
Henry Faryna - Bath, NY