Professor Rick Cherry

Former Institute Professor Rick Cherry Passes
From Alumni News at the Monterey Institute of International Studies

2/8/06
Remembering Rick Cherry

Last week, Dr. Rick Cherry succumbed to cancer only about a week after being diagnosed. Rick was a faculty member at MIIS in the business school from the mid 1980’s to the mid 1990’s.

At MIIS, Rick taught courses in cross-cultural communication and worked with the business plan groups to help them develop teamwork and professional communication skills. Tom Petersen, a member of the FGSIB faculty and staff, had this to say about working with Rick: “Dr. Cherry was very close to my Class of '89 as he personally visited every business plan team at their homes or apartments on numerous occasions over a one year period giving feedback on group dynamics. He would say it was his version of ‘Transactional Analysis.’ I also remember him tossing candies to our class (all 85 of us) when he lectured if someone gave an answer to one of his queries that he thought was good. I personally remember him giving me valued advice on living in Asia and having a nice smile about what I would face going to work overseas.”

In addition to having been a faculty member of the business school at MIIS, Rick was a licensed family therapist. He sometimes served as the unofficial therapist at pub gatherings – especially those that occurred after MIIS faculty meetings. Kathi Bailey, GSLEL Professor, recalls one particular form of therapy he practiced often at the London Bridge Pub in Monterey. There used to be small green-shaded lamps on the tables, and when Rick had had enough bitching and moaning about a particular topic, he would grin and pull the on-off switch on the lamp to indicate it was time to change the topic. Good therapy.

Rick had been living in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the past ten years. He taught there in the business school at Chiang Mai University after retiring from MIIS. He also had many corporate clients throughout Asia and the US for his cross-cultural training programs. Les Zambo and Kathi Bailey were fortunate to be with Rick the first time he went to Thailand and to visit him there many times since then. He loved Thailand and had studied Thai -- adding that language to his abilities in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian.

Steve Mascari, who runs Lewiinski’s Pub and Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand, is a graduate of MIIS and used to run the snackbar here. Rick had visited him often in Pattaya and taken other friends to stay at Lewiinski’s. Steve had this to say about Rick’s passing: “Rick became a friend and brother to me over the 25 years that I have known him. We have shared a legion of memorable times both in Monterey and in Thailand. Rick was one of God's unique and gifted creations. He took these gifts, developed them, doubled them, squared them, cubed them, then gave them a quantum boost, shared them with all of us and did it all with his own special flair. How do we know this? We know this because of the profound sense of loss that we all share. Friend and brother.”

Rick loved to have a good time. Kathi and Les golfed with him in California, Mexico, Singapore, Scotland, and Thailand. He loved to swim and take walks and dance and sing and be silly. Kathi recalls a raucus night of karaoke singing with Rick and his Kodak corporate clients in Singapore many years ago, during which Rick provided an unrehearsed interpretive dance to Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game."

For the past two years Rick's daughter, Gillian Cherry Beerman, his son-in-law, David Beerman and his two grandchildren have been living in Thailand near him. He loved playing with the grandkids (Ashlyn Brynn and Nathan Richard) and had recently taken the whole family, plus his sister, Diane, nephew, Michael, and nephew's son, Thomas, on a trip to a beautiful beach in southern Thailand. (He is also survived by his brother, John Cherry.)

Kathi was fortunate to be able to visit with Rick twice during my recent trip to Thailand. The first was in a hospital in Chiang Mai, where he had checked himself in because he was having difficulty breathing. In spite of being short of breath, he told me all about the trip to the beach and lots of stories about the grandchildren. The next week I visited him at a hospital in Bangkok, where he had been transferred for further tests. It was there that a bone marrow test revealed advanced stages of cancer. Rick flew home to California last Sunday and died peacefully on Monday. He was a retired naval officer and his wish was to be cremated and have his ashes scattered at sea.

When Kathi visited Rick in Bangkok he asked her to tell as many people as possible about his trip from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. He was med-evacked on a charter flight -- a seventy-seater for just him, Gillie's family, a doctor and nurse, and the flight crew. The doctor on board was a good friend of Rick's, and apparently there was a lot if joking and playfulness during the flight. This plane and its crew had been one of the first into southern Thailand for rescue operations after the tsunami last year, and it was well equipped for medical emergencies. He was laughing as he talked about his grandson, Nathan Richard, running his racing cars up and down the plane's aisle. Rick grinned and he told me to tell as many people as possible that for an hour and a half, he had owned an airplane.

Kathi saw Gillian and the rest of the family at a get-together in Chico on Saturday. Many of Rick’s old high school buddies and college friends spent the day reminiscing about his incredible life: his wild youth, his tour in Viet Nam, his work as a psychotherapist and cross-cultural trainer, his enthusiasm for travel and his sense of adventure, his love for Thailand, how proud he was of his grandchildren. The members of Rick’s family are currently deciding how to honor his memory, but in the meantime they suggest that contributions to scholarship funds for underprivileged young people would be appropriate.