Rest in peace, Wayne Curry

Thanks for your accomplishments and your leadership. You made a difference in a lot of lives, including mine.

Wayne K. Curry dies at 63:  former Prince Georges County executive

Mr. Curry, a real estate and corporate lawyer, was one of the country’s first black popularly elected county leaders. The Democrat served two terms as county executive in the first major city or county in the nation to go from majority white to majority black with income and education levels rising instead of falling. 

Caption to the picture in the article:  "Mr. Curry helped bring FedEx Field and National Harbor to Prince George’s County."

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Alvin Thornton, senior academic adviser to the president of Howard University and a former political science professor, said Mr. Curry is likely to be remembered less for a building that was constructed or law that was passed during his tenure than for the social and political role he played at a critical juncture in county history.

Thornton said Mr. Curry “played the role that had to be played . . . with a presence and sophistication. . . . If you fail at that, leadership of other communities won’t listen to you, they won’t follow you, they will caricature you. I think Wayne avoided all that. He was very capable and very able to articulate the interests of the emerging black community.”

He was a very influential man in this community, and he meant a lot to me.  I wish I could have told him.