Dead Page: Robert DeForrest and Edward Corboy

EDWARD CORBOY

Led Efforts to Rename Chicago's Orchard Airport to O'Hare

Edward Corboy died April 30, 2007 at age 88. As a Chicago Tribune Advertising executive, he and Publisher Robert McCormick led the efforts to rename Chicago's Orchard Depot Airfield in honor of WWII Medal of Honor winner Edward "Butch" O'Hare, who single-handedly shot down five Japanese bombers attacking the aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

So that is why any luggage going to O'Hare has the three letters ORD on it, and not OHA.


ROBERT DeFORREST 1935-2007

Preservationist located Black American Landmarks

Robert DeForrest died February 23, 2007, at the age of 72. He cofounded the Afro-American Institute for Historic Preservation and Community Development which headquartered in Washington, DC, in a three story mansion filled with photographs, maps, and other documents that would help identify and classify sites associated with African Americans in the US.

Their efforts over an 18 year period l;ed to the more than 60 sites in 22 states and the District of Columbia being designated as national historic landmarks.

In 1978, DeForrest completed a study that led to the home of Maggie Walker (1867-1934) in Richmond, Va., being named a national landmark. She was a pioneering black banker and civic leader. She was the first woman of any race to charter a bank in the US. Later in life, she became paralyzed and became an example for persons with disabilities.

In 1989, he said, "The history we were taught in school always came from a Eurocentric perspective. But the presence of blacks in American history is very significant from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam."

From the Washington Post.