HENDERSONVILLE LIGHTNING REPORTS THAT HICKS DIED FRIDAY
ARRANGEMENTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED
Terry Hicks, a key contributor to the formation and development of the Village of Flat Rock from the mid-1990s through the establishment of its popular park, died on Friday at his home after a period of failing health, Flat Rock village officials said. He was 81.
Hicks, who retired to Flat Rock in 1992 after a career as a book publisher and seller, served as mayor from 1999 to 2003 but his time serving his adopted home spanned almost 25 years.
Hicks became involved in Flat Rock‘s civic affairs as soon as he arrived and before the village incorporated in 1995. He worked on the project to bring water and sewer to the Flat Rock Playhouse and other parts of town and helped draft the first zoning ordinance.
As the second mayor, “he led us through the process of moving from the Singleton Centre to where we are today,” said Judy Boleman, who served with Hicks on the village council and is now the village administrator. “He was also instrumental in finding people to run for council who had special areas of expertise.”
When the village was writing the first land-use code, someone mentioned a Hendersonville native who had spent a career in real estate law in Northern Virginia. The village founders recruited Bob Staton to serve on the Planning Board and later Staton found himself on the receiving end of Hicks’s famously effective one-on-one recruiting pushes. Hicks wanted Staton to serve on the village council.
“I didn’t want to do that but after he asked me about six times I finally agreed that I would,” Staton said. After Ray Shaw signaled his retirement as mayor in 2007, Hicks recruited Staton to run for mayor.
“I absolutely didn’t want to do that,” he said. “Then he had a heart attack and I went to visit him. He was sitting up in the hospital bed and Christine was sitting at his side and he pointed his finger at me and said, ‘Will you run for mayor?’ I said, well, I’d have to think about it, and he said how long would I need. I said, ‘About 10 seconds’ and he sat there and counted to 10.”
Hicks’s wife, Christine, was not surprised.
“He was soft spoken and very kind and very gentle but he always got his way in the kindest way possible,” she said. “He was a very loving man. He loved his family, he loved Flat Rock.”
