by Penny Reeder and Sharon Lovering
Terry Doherty Pacheco, 75, of Silver Spring, Md., formerly of Braintree and Arlington, Mass., passed away September 2nd after a long battle with kidney disease.
Born on March 28, 1951, to the late James and Theresa Doherty, Terry was a 1968 graduate of Arlington High School, where she was very active in student clubs and activities. She was one of the first students with vision loss to complete the entire program. Terry went on to Chandler School for Women, where she met lifelong friends, including her bestie, Lorraine Griffin.
While living in Boston she met the love of her life, Frank Pacheco, who would become her husband of 53 years. She and Frank adopted a special child - Scott. She went on to establish herself in a long and accomplished career, becoming a leader and a voice for the blind community.
She and Frank joined ACB in its second decade, and the values by which ACB defined itself then have remained the values she has helped all of us to adopt and promote throughout the succeeding decades of advocacy, camaraderie, empathy, caring, and fun that she and so many of us have shared together.
Terry was a person who loved life completely. She enjoyed interacting with other people, and she truly had, and treasured, hundreds of friends. Some of those friendships dated back to her childhood, when she and her family spent summers on Onset Beach. Terry made friends throughout her lifetime. She nurtured those relationships, and whether you had met Terry in middle school or while she operated a Randolph-Sheppard vending facility, or as a new caller to the “VISAbilities” show which she hosted every Friday evening for the last six years on ACB Media, or any time in between, you knew that Terry was the kind of friend who would be there, always willing to listen, offering advice and rooting for your success any time you were able to connect.
In 1999, Terry and Frank relocated from New England to Silver Spring, Md., where she furthered her passion to gain equality and support for blind and low vision people by advocating and raising awareness for the disabled community. She joined the staff of the ACB National Office in 1999 as the Coordinator of Affiliate and Membership Services. She was responsible for the scholarship program, the internship program, annual legislative seminars, and worked in tandem with the convention coordinator to put together ACB national conventions. She remained in that position until 2006.
Terry loved reading and learning, cooking and entertaining, bringing order to chaos and planning get-togethers, intimate and enormous and in-between. There are many in ACB with fond memories of sharing comforting meals, entertaining stories, and friendship around Terry and Frank’s dining table, and lots who fondly remember the parties she planned and hosted for colleagues and friends who were looking to celebrate an upcoming marriage or anniversary, an expected baby, a birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, or any near holiday.
Terry was an active member of many ACB affiliates throughout the years. She was the kind of member an affiliate could count upon to step up when someone was needed to plan or host an auction, fill a vacancy on a board, contribute to a newsletter, find a creative solution to a problem, plan a convention program, or simply serve as a reliable member who, you knew, would be there to do what she had promised to do. In 2022, Terry was elected to the ACB Board of Directors. Her term wrapped up at the end of this year’s convention.
Terry completed her career in service to people with disabilities at the Federal Communications Commission, where she created and implemented strategies to bring government agencies and associates into compliance with Internet and telecommunications accessibility requirements.
Terry is survived by her treasured husband, Frank, and their loving son, Scott, of Somerville. She was preceded in death by her sister, Diane Smith. She leaves Diane’s husband, Bob Smith of Stoneham, her brother Jim Doherty and wife Denise of Andover, and her sister Carol Doherty and her late spouse Ivy Gorman of Wareham and Stoneham. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Terry's memory to Perkins School for the Blind, 175 N. Beacon St., Watertown, MA 02472.
Photo Caption:
Frank and Terry Pacheco celebrate Terry’s birthday in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Terry’s Facebook page.)