TERRACE PARK — Douglas MacMillan Cherry's life couldn't have been going better.

        Married to his college sweetheart for nearly 13 years, he was a doting father to three happy children.

Sarah Cherry hugs her 7-year-old daughter Emma during the memorial service. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        He was a vice president for a worldwide insurance brokerage.

        And even his favorite football team, the Cincinnati Bengals, had just won its season opener for the first time in four years.

        Then came Sept. 11.

        Mr. Cherry, 38, who grew up in Terrace Park, died after terrorist attacks crumbled the World Trade Center, where he worked.

        “It was not God's will that Doug die in the prime of his life,” the Rev. J. Donald Waring said Saturday morning during a memorial service at Mr. Cherry's boyhood church, St. Thomas Episcopal. Mr. Cherry's life was taken, he said, by people who misused the free will God granted them.

Mr. Cherry

        “God grieves with us over these tragic and terrible events because Doug and many thousands like him died too soon,” said the Rev. Mr. Waring, the church's rector.

        On Sept. 11, Mr. Cherry was working on the 104th floor of Tower Two — the same floor where another Cincinnati-area native, Wendy Faulkner, 47, was attending a meeting. Both were vice presidents in different divisions of Aon Corp., which has 50,000 employees in 600 offices.

        Mrs. Faulkner's husband, Lynn, didn't know whether the two had ever met. Mrs. Faulkner, of Mason, normally was based in Aon's Chicago office.

        More than 1,100 Aon employees were based in the World Trade Center; about 200 of them, including Mrs. Faulkner, remain missing. Mr. Cherry's body was discovered near the building's entrance two days after the attacks.        

Phone calls

        In the wake of the terrorism, Mr. Cherry had two telephone conversations with his wife, Sarah, at their home in nearby Maplewood, N.J.

        First, Mrs. Cherry called her husband to tell him that an airplane had just hit Tower One. While they were talking, Mr. Cherry was ordered to evacuate; a second plane had struck Tower Two.

        As he was trying to escape, Mr. Cherry borrowed a cell phone to make one last phone call to his wife.

        “It's given his family some comfort that he was able to say goodbye and express his love for her and the children,” said Mr. Cherry's brother-in-law, Burns Patterson, 41, of Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. “Doug was a family man. That's really what Doug was all about.”

        During that final phone call, Mr. Cherry “was still hoping to get out,” Mr. Patterson said.        

Upbeat tone

        Mr. Cherry's body has not yet been returned to his family, but two memorial services have now been held.

Doug and Sarah Cherry on their wedding day.

        An overflow crowd of 600 to 700 people attended a Sept. 20 service at Morrow United Methodist Church in Maplewood, N.J.

        In Terrace Park on Saturday, an over-capacity crowd of 360 attended “A Service in Thanksgiving to God for the Life of Douglas MacMillan Cherry.” As its title implies, the service took on an upbeat tone.

        The Rev. Mr. Waring comforted mourners, telling them that the events of Sept. 11 make all of us fear for our safety, but “Doug is safe. ... He is now with the Lord.”

        Between tears, the crowd chuckled as two childhood friends recounted happy memories.

        “He was the funniest person I have ever known,” said Jeff Weech, who now lives in Texas.“He was a lover of life and he made us love life. ... He was silly. He nicknamed all of his friends — and then he named our cars.”

        Mr. Cherry was the only person Mr. Weech had ever seen literally roll on the floor laughing. But he was also ambitious and hard-working.

MEMORIALS

• Douglas M. Cherry Memorial Fund (for the education of his three children), in care of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 100 Miami Ave., Terrace Park, OH 45174.    • Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity, Douglas M. Cherry Memorial Fund, Eastside Coalition, Eighth and Elm streets, Cincinnati, OH 45202.

        “Doug was a fiery, competitive spirit. He was clean-cut, athletic and popular,” Mr. Weech said. “He was loved by countless friends and acquaintances.”

        Now a clergyman in South Carolina, Robert W. Caswell recalled when he was an acolyte at St. Thomas. He once fell asleep — and it was Doug Cherry who tried to wake him up. He also said he and Doug would sit in the church balcony, fold church leaflets into paper-airplanes — and think about tossing them, “but none of us ever did.”

        Mr. Cherry's wife and two daughters attended Saturday's service, one of them clutching a teddy bear; his toddler son remained with relatives in New York.

        Also present were his parents, Douglas and Anne, who still live in Terrace Park, along with many members of Mr. Cherry's 1981 graduating class of Mariemont High School.

        Mr. Cherry received a bachelor's degree in economics from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1985. He had been an insurance industry executive for 15 years.

        Mr. Cherry also leaves two sisters, Meg Smith of St. Louis and Barbara Schenck of Xenia. Mrs. Schenck formerly worked for U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who attended Saturday's service.

        “Even though his death causes us pain, it was a joyful, hopeful liturgy,” said the Rev. Mr. Caswell. “It gives us hope that we might overcome the darkness of a desperate world.”
       

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