Jail liaison, public housing advocate dies
By SETH SLABAUGH
seths@muncie.gannett.com


MUNCIE -- Longtime public servant Jerry Thornburg, 71, who had been suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, died Sunday.

He was a union, neighborhood and Democratic activist, a three-term county auditor and a pipe fitter at Delco Battery, finishing his career as Community Development director for the city of Muncie until the disease forced him out of city hall several months ago. He lived in the historic East Central neighborhood.



As auditor in the late 1980s, he spearheaded efforts to build a new county jail after Democratic County Commissioners Doyle Bell and Lawrence (Sparky) Walsh and Republican Commissioner Ronald Quakenbush gave up responsibility.

"He kept the project on its feet after I resigned as liaison," Quakenbush recalled Monday. "I couldn't handle it. I couldn't get anywhere in the minority. Jerry picked it up and carried the ball."

Former Special Master Lee McNeely, who was appointed by U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker to complete the jail project, on Monday said of Thornburg, "He was a dedicated public servant who we found, in very difficult times, was a man of integrity and strength. I know the court appreciated his candor. Jerry could be pretty blunt at times. You didn't always like what he said, but you knew what he told you was from the heart and that it was the truth."

Kaye Nelson, the widow of former Democratic Party Chairman Ira (Rip) Nelson, recalled that when Thornburg was auditor, he removed the door to his office and had it stored in the basement of the county building because he believed in open government.

Thornburg's three siblings were all teachers, Nelson said. "Jerry didn't go to college, but he was smarter than all of them," she said. "He could've been anything he wanted."

Thornburg's involvement in the jail fiasco probably is what cost him a fourth term as auditor when he sought re-election in 1990.

But he became a public servant again in 1998 when Republican Mayor Dan Canan appointed him as CD director.

His legacy in that position includes Millennium Place, which replaces the barracks-style Munsyana Homes, the oldest public housing project in the state, with colorful Craftsman-style, New Urbanist public homes with gables, dormers, covered front porches, brick facades and old-fashioned street lights.

"As CD director, he was a real advocate for people in need," Canan said. "Millennium Place is a direct result of his perseverance and tenacity in sticking with that project."

Bill Smith, a city sanitary district commissioner, said, "Jerry probably bent a lot of rules, but he wanted to get a lot of things done. If anybody wants to see the true story of Jerry Thornburg, look at Munsyana Homes and what's happened down there and the improvement he made."

Last month, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence presented the ailing Thornburg with a Sagamore of the Wabash award from Gov. Mitch Daniels. That coincided with the dedication of a linear park at Millennium Place as "Jerry L. Thornburg Park."

Just because Thornburg went to work for a Republican mayor doesn't mean he quit being a Democrat.

"Absolutely not," Canan said. "I didn't make him a Republican. He was a very proud Democrat."

Reporters remember a sign that Thornburg used to have in his office when he was auditor. It read: "Democrat born, Democrat bred, and when they bury me I'll be Democrat dead."