1976

mcteach@mindspring.com

After graduating from Mills College, Sherry Teachnor J.D. ’76 was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1970s, beginning a lifetime of serving others. She graduated from Santa Clara Law School and was awarded a Reginald Heber Smith Scholarship to represent migrant farmworkers in Michigan. She continued to pursue justice for farmworkers as the national coordinator for local programs at the Migrant Legal Action Program in Washington, D.C., where she met Michael McCrory, her husband of 37 years. She worked as an international law consultant in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Brunei before moving with Michael to Tucson, Arizona, to pursue civil rights cases for strikers in the Phelps Dodge copper strike as special counsel for the United Steelworkers. Following the strike cases, she and her husband opened a private practice office in Tucson that also included work in Ajo and Hermosillo, Arizona. She continued that practice in Tucson and Ajo after Michael joined the city attorney’s office. The 1993 assassination of her friend, Guy Malary in Haiti, led to a Haitian art fundraiser that blossomed into Haiti Arts/Galeria La Sirena, a Latin American and Caribbean art gallery in Tucson. Sherry loved being able to provide an outlet for local and international artists and original art that was filled with bright color and vitality to her clientele. She advocated for many progressive and social justice causes, candidates, and values in Arizona, the U.S. and the world throughout her entire life. She loved her friends and her five hounds, Basil, Daphne, Buddy, Sally, and Pippen. Sherry passed away peacefully on Oct. 22, 2017, at her home in Tucson, Arizona, after a long and courageous battle against illness. She cherished her time at Santa Clara and its dedication to social justice, taking her husband to tour the campus, and she always enjoyed the magazine.

08 Nov 2018