Joel Cherry

Joel Payne Cherry, 80, of Falls Church, Virginia, passed away on February 10th after a long, well-fought battle with cancer. Joel graduated with a Master’s in Social Science from the University of Toledo. He worked for the CIA for over 25 years living in many countries including Cyprus where he met and married Yilper Cemal in 1968. Yilper and Joel have a son, Thomas Erol Cherry born in Reading, England in 1969 and a daughter, Leyla Janet Cherry born at Fairfax Hospital, Virginia in 1972. The family lived abroad in Okinawa, Japan; Ft. Clayton, Panama; Manama, Bahrain and Amman, Jordan. Post retirement he was able to focus more time on his coin collecting business, Mercury Numismatics, which was the culmination of a boyhood hobby started at the age of 7. He enjoyed spending time with his family, reading, doing cross word puzzles and was an enthusiastic world traveler. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Yilper; son, Thomas, and daughter-in-law Andrea; daughter, Leyla Hurt and son-in-law, Mike; three beloved grandsons, Adam, Andy, and Griffin; sisters Jane Malte (Georgia) and Nancy Magerl (Illinois); brother Jon Cherry (Ohio), and family in Northern Cyprus and Arizona.