ISU names street for alum, diplomat

Jul. 31—Indiana State University trustees on Friday approved the honorary naming of a campus street after Cynthia Shepard Perry, a Terre Haute native and ISU graduate selected by three U.S. presidents to represent the country on the international level.

Perry, 92, served as the U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone and Burundi.

The honorary naming means that Fifth Street from Cherry Street north to Tippecanoe Street will be known as "Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Way." Perry, who has family members in the Terre Haute community, will be honored in a ceremony at a later time, possibly in September.

"I'm really, really truly honored that my hometown has thought to do this for me," Perry said in a phone interview Friday. "I'm sure this doesn't happen to many people."

The honorary naming covers a half-mile of Fifth Street on campus; that portion of the street is owned by ISU as part of an agreement with the city of Terre Haute dating back to 2011. Signage will mark the honorary naming, but street addresses will not change for public safety reasons.

ISU president Deborah Curtis said Perry "spent her career bringing people together in our nation and around the world, and represented our country with distinction in numerous capacities."

By recognizing her accomplishments, "It allows us to lift up the visibility of who comes and learns at Indiana State," Curtis said. "We serve a population from all walks of life ... and Ambassador Perry is the embodiment of successful Sycamores who have gotten their start here and gone out and literally changed the world."

In an interview, Perry offered some advice for college students. "I've been teaching now for a long, long time, and my message always to young people is to set a long-term goal, one that you can't reach tomorrow, one that's going to take you years to reach."

They should also set short-term goals in between "for good measure and to make you feel you are succeeding," she said. "Most people, young people especially, don't try to think through to when they are going to be 70 years old and retiring. What do you want to be retiring from? And how do you get there?"

Perry said she has quite a following of young people who are following her advice and "they are finding great success along the way."

In her goal to become an ambassador, she never gave up, she said. "I always knew it was going to happen. I had to be patient and prepare for the time when it did happen. And it did."

Curtis previously met with alumni who expressed interest in recognizing Perry for her accomplishments.

ISU alumni Crystal Reynolds and Darrell Morton worked together to advocate for the recognition of Perry. Reynolds is involved with the organization Incorporated Gathering, while Morton is president of ISU's Black Alumni Network.

The honor "is much deserved," Reynolds said.

Perry has been a transformational leader who changed people's lives on international, national and local levels, Reynolds has said. Terre Haute and ISU "nurtured and mentored her ... and she went on to do great things in the world."

The honorary street naming honors not only Perry, but Terre Haute and ISU as well, Reynolds has said.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed Perry as ambassador to Sierra Leone. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush appointed her as ambassador to Burundi.

Reagan had previously appointed Perry as chief of the education and human resources division in the Africa Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Perry grew up in the segregated community called the Lost Creek Settlement just outside Terre Haute, according to ISU. After graduating from Otter Creek High School in 1946, she married and started a family while also working in banking and for IBM, the computer hardware company. She later earned a scholarship to Indiana State, where she earned her bachelor's degree in political science in 1968.

She went on to earn a doctorate in international education from the University of Massachusetts in 1972. As part of her doctoral program, she worked with former Peace Corps volunteers who had served in Africa to develop and test African Studies curricula for public schools to help improve race relations.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at sue.loughlin@tribstar.com Follow Sue on Twitter @TribStarSue.