William Polk Cheshire

Published 2:34 pm Monday, December 30, 2024

Mr. William Polk Cheshire of Washington passed away Friday, December 27, 2024. Mr. Cheshire was born Feb. 2, 1931, the third son of James Webb Cheshire and Anne Ludlow McGehee Cheshire of Raliegh, NC. He is survived by his loving wife of nine years, Judith Ann Keel Tunstall Cheshire of Washington and her family; his two sons, William Polk Cheshire Jr., M.D., and daughter-in-law Doris Elisabeth Schmidt Cheshire of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, and James Webb Cheshire II, and daughter-in-law Rebecca Ruth Gleason Cheshire of Keller, TX; his daughter Helen Wood Cheshire Chapman and son-in-law Andrew Byrne Chapman of Suffolk, VA; his ten grandchildren; his two nephews, Lucius McGehee Cheshire Jr., and Carl Davis Cheshire, both of Hillsborough, NC; and his niece, Jane Efland Cheshire-Allen of Mill Valley, CA. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 54 years, Lucile Geoghegan Cheshire and his two brothers Lucius McGehee Cheshire and James Webb Cheshire Jr.

He spent most of his childhood at the family home of his fraternal grandmother outside of Hillsborough, NC, to which place the family moved when he was a small boy. He attended Christchurch School, Christchurch, VA, and Episcopal High School, Alexandria, VA, and graduated in 1958 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. At UNC, he was news editor of the Daily Tar Heel, managing editor of the Summer School Weekly, and a member of the Kappa Tau Alpha journalism honor society, the Thirteen Club, and the Zeta Psi fraternity. Prior to graduation he had served for four years as a seaman and petty officer in the United States Coast Guard.

Following college, he was chief statehouse reporter and assistant state editor of the Richmond (VA) News Leader, and associate editor of the weekly Canton (NC) Enterprise, the Charleston (SC) Evening Post, and The State newspaper in Columbia, SC. He served as director of communications for the 1972 Republican U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina and for the following two years was a television and radio commentator and editorial director of Capitol Broadcasting Co. in Raleigh. He then returned to print journalism as editorial page editor of the Greensboro (NC) Record. Subsequently he served as editor-in-chief of the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail and editor of the editorial pages of the Washington Times in Washington, DC, from which position he resigned in protest when ordered to defend political repression in South Korea. While in Washington, he was a regular panelist on the weekly Voice of America program “Issues in the News,” and for nine years after leaving the Times was editor of the editorial pages and senior editorial columnist of the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, AZ. He retired in 1996, moving with his wife to Washington, NC. During his career as a newspaper editor, broadcaster, and columnist, his articles appeared in a variety of national publications including Policy Review, National Review, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal.

He was a member of the Friday Night Club, the Washington Yacht and Country Club, the Ramblers Supper Club, the Down Easter Seniors, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the National Press Club, and the National Conference of Editorial Writers. He was past chairman of the North Carolina Conference of Editorial Writers. He was past chairman of the North Carolina Conference of Editorial Writers, past president of the piedmont North Carolina chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi), an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Charleston, WV, a Distinguished Fellow in Journalism at the Heritage Foundation in 1987, a Media Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in 1991, past president of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, Marshal of the national organization, past president of the Carolina Charter Corporation, recipient of the Washington-Lafayette Medal for service of great distinction, and recent recipient of the newly designed and minted 50-year membership pin.

He was a faithful member of the Episcopal Church, with which his family long had been associated in North Carolina, and had served as lay reader, lay Eucharistic minister, vestryman, and senior warden of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Washington, NC.

A funeral service will be held 2:00 p.m. Sunday January 5, 2025, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Washington, officiated by the Reverend Christopher Adams, Rector.  The family will receive friends for one hour following the service at the church.  A private family burial will take place after the visitation.

Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.paulfuneralhome.com

Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Cheshire family.