| | | Memorial for Wherley, wife scheduled | | June 26, 2009 |  | | | Voice Correspondent | | Even after logging thousands of hours flying fighter planes and tackling myriad challenges in a distinguished 40-year military career, Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr. always said his toughest challenge was navigating the bureaucracy to get funding for a program to rescue at-risk youth.
Wherley and his wife, Ann, both 62, were among the nine victims who died in the Fort Totten Metrorail accident on June 22. They lived on Capitol Hill.
A memorial service for the couple is scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m. at 2001 East Capitol St. SE. They will be buried Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Arlington National Cemetery. A procession to the cemetery will leave from the DC Armory at 10 a.m.
A recently retired commanding general with the D.C. National Guard and veteran Air Force fighter pilot, Wherley was remembered this week by neighbors and colleagues for his efforts to establish the Capital Guardian Youth Challenge Academy in 2006.
“He always felt that D.C. should have the same benefits as any other state,” said Maj. Shane Doucet, a plans and programs officer with the D.C. National Guard. “He worked tirelessly with the city and the Department of Defense to come up with the funding. He was totally committed to the academy and constantly bragged about those kids and how it was going to change their lives.”
Most states match federal appropriations available for the academies, which operate a 17-month self-improvement and leadership program for high school dropouts. For years, D.C. youth were eligible to participate in Maryland, but the District did not have its own program. Wherley sought the help of his Capitol Hill neighbor, Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., who sits on the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations and whose home state funds a Youth Challenge Academy.
In 2006, Wherley obtained $500,000 in federal funds and, with backing from former D.C. mayor Anthony Williams, another $300,000 from the District to establish the academy, Doucet said. In a speech to employers and law enforcement officials in 2007, Wherley promised to win tuition assistance for the program — and he did, Doucet added, to the tune of $400,000 in District and federal funds.
“He was a self-confessed introvert who was not all that into politics,” Doucet said. “But he’d get emotional when he talked about the program and the kids, and he got it done.”
More than 100 D.C. youths have entered the program, according to National Guard Lt. Col. Kevin McAndrews, who said Wherley’s most recent challenge had been striving to restore funding that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty cut in March, “to our dismay,” McAndrews said. The D.C. Council ultimately restored the funding.
“Gen. Wherley was in charge of 2,500 people when he got into this, and it would have been easy for him to not take anything else on,” he said. “But he wouldn’t hear of it. His response confirmed the need and the urgency for this type of program.”
The Youth Challenge Academy accepts 16- to 19-year-olds who live in D.C., are U.S. citizens or legal U.S. residents, and are not currently on parole or probation for other than juvenile offenses.
Wherley’s commitment to the community extended to youths who had left the academy, he added, as Wherley and his wife Ann signed up as mentors.
Mark Grace, a neighbor and former colleague, said the Wherleys were well-liked in the community as well. They walked their dog, Bunky, in Lincoln Park and had recently become grandparents. “He was just a fantastic human being,” Grace said. “His wife Ann was lovely. They were a charming couple. They were just taking on a new phase in their lives together.”
Wherley also had found time for a second career. Rainette Bannon, associate director of the National Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland’s University College, hired him about a year ago as an coach for students with leadership potential in the private and public sectors.
“We conducted a program for the National Guard, and he said, ‘I want to do what you people do,’” Bannon said, describing Wherley’s job as assisting management-level students with career goals.
“He was gregarious, likable and endlessly enthusiastic,” she said. “He didn’t act like a general, just a lovely professional guy. Someone you would pay attention to.”
Wherley’s death in the Metro accident was all the more poignant, McAndrews said, because Wherley loved the Metro system and rode frequently.
“Most generals get around with a car and a driver, but he’d ride his bike around Capitol Hill or take the Metro,” McAndrews said.
In lieu of flowers donations can be sent to the
Ann and David Wherley Charitable Gift Fund c/o Lassus Wherley, 1 Academy St., New Providence, N.J. 07974. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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