SILVER SPRING, MD – Montgomery County Planning Board Commissioner Jean Cryor, who served on the Board for over two years after a long tenure in the Maryland House of Delegates, died Tuesday night of cancer.
Cryor, a 35-year resident of Montgomery County who was twice named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by a statewide newspaper. The Montgomery County Council appointed her to the Planning Board in June 2007 immediately following her 12-year service in the House of Delegates, where she served on the House Ways and Means Committee and served for four years as its ranking member. She represented District 15, including most of western Montgomery County.
“The entire Park and Planning family is deeply saddened at the untimely death of Commissioner Jean Cryor,” said Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson. “We were richer having her as a colleague who brought her years of experience and wisdom as journalist, political leader, legislator, and all-around selfless public servant to the work of the Planning Board.”
Cryor, 70, spent much of her career in journalism, including as editor and publisher of the local Gazette Newspapers. She launched the Potomac, Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Poolesville Gazettes, newspapers that garnered many reporting awards. The Maryland Society of Professional Journalists recognized her with its top award for investigative journalism.
Throughout her life, Cryor was an activist interested in the environment, education and women’s issues. She had been named The Potomac Almanac’s Citizen of the Year, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce’s Business Person of the Year, and was elected president of the West Montgomery County Citizens Association.
Delegate Cryor served on the state’s Thornton Education Commission, and twice was the lead sponsor of a successful bill to suspend sales tax on clothing for Back to School Week. Her legislation protecting the Potomac River was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cryor was elected president of Maryland Women Legislators, the first time a Republican held the post. The Potomac Chamber of Commerce honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award and the Potomac Almanac named her Citizen of Year for her environmental work.
Cryor was raised in suburban Philadelphia, where she was a reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin. For 10 years, Mrs. Cryor headed up the mid-Atlantic area for the News Election Service, the election reporting pool of the networks and wire services.
Recently, Cryor taught local and state government at Montgomery College. Throughout her life, she served on numerous boards, including the Maryland Commission for Women, the Universities of Maryland/Shady Grove, Blackrock Center for the Arts, the Potomac Theater Company and Montgomery Women, among others.
Cryor was the widow of Dan Cryor, a CBS newsman for over 20 years. She is survived by her three grown daughters, Allison Cryor DiNardo of Alexandria, Virginia; Jennifer Cryor Baldwin of North Potomac, Maryland; and Deirdre Cryor of Denver, Colorado; three grandchildren, Maitland, Emma and Anna Baldwin; and her sister, Bonnie O’Neill of Guatemala.
“Jean brought us insight, compassion, humor, and great good judgment to the decisions we make,” Hanson said. “It was characteristic of her dedication to the public weal that she insisted that her funeral could not be held on Thursday” when the Planning Board regularly meets. “She was one of Montgomery’s finest citizens, and an enormous loss to all of us who knew and loved her, and to the greater community her work touched.”
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Note: High-res photos of Jean Cryor available upon request.