SALISBURY — Dr. Kevin Cherry will speak at the 42nd Annual Historic Salisbury Foundation meeting, set for 6 p.m. April 10 at Salisbury Station, 215 Depot St.
Historic Salisbury Foundation encourages people who are interested in historic preservation, historic homes, the OctoberTour or helping Salisbury maintain its historic charm for future generation to attend. Reservations for the meeting must be made by Friday by calling 704-636-0103.
Cherry is deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and History, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. He’s also interim executive director for the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer.
Before his latest appointment, Cherry served as senior program officer at the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., where he coordinated the nation’s largest competitive grant program for the libraries and archives.
Cherry is a North Carolina native and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obtain his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees. He then worked in Rowan County and at UNC-Chapel Hill and taught at East Carolina University.
He served as a consultant for special collections for the State Library of North Carolina. He also created one of the largest cultural heritage repositories ever undertaken in North Carolina – the N.C. Exploring Cultural Heritage Online project.
Cherry said like many North Carolinians, he has enjoyed the services of the Office of Archives and History “just about my entire life.”
“I still remember my elementary school trip to Reed Gold Mine and doing family research in the State Archives search room as a teenager,” he said. “I later called upon the office’s resources for my graduate research, and I have lost count of all of the great times I have spent in the Museum of History, the State Capitol, Tryon Palace, the Battleship North Carolina, among others.”
Cherry pointed to architecture that has been saved by the State Historic Preservation Office and books published by Historical Publications as examples of how the Office of Archives and History has maintained the state’s unique identity.