Biography

Charlotte P. (Sherry) Hutchison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1919 and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1940. Sherry Hutchison married Lawrence O. (Larry) Hutchison in Berkeley, California in 1945 and the couple had two sons: Perry and Lawrence. Sherry and Larry Hutchison were long-time residents of Des Moines, Iowa, where they were active members of the Quaker community through the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting. Hutchison served on the regional board of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Iowa Program Faith and Labor Committee, and the AFSC Peace Education Committee. Peace and human rights activist Hutchison was a member and long-time president of the Des Moines chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Hutchison was active with the League of Women Voters (LWV), serving on the board of the Metro Des Moines League and on several LWV committees. In the 1970s, Sherry and Larry Hutchison were part of a three-year shareholder initiative against Iowa Power and Light Company (now MidAmerican Energy) after it announced plans to build a nuclear energy plant near Prairie City, Iowa. Hutchison supported a number of causes, such as disarmament, a nuclear freeze, anti-racism, civil rights, and citizen review boards for police; she continued to attend rallies and protests into her late 90s. Larry Hutchison died in 1988. Sherry Hutchison passed away in 2018.

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