Herrick Harrell Dyer Jr. was born March 24, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Herrick H. and Winifred Irene (Konker) Dyer. He had a younger sister, Eleanor Lucile, born just fourteen months later in 1927. The family lived on Torrington Road in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. His mother's parents, Harry (a traveling salesman who sold fishing tackle) and Lillie Konker were living with them in 1930. His father, Herrick Sr., was a vice-president of the Dyer Company- a business that manufactured "sugar machinery." His grandfather, E.H. (Ebenezer Herrick) Dyer, had been one of the original titans of the sugar beet industry in California and the western United States.
With the U.S. heavily involved in WWII, in 1944 at the age of 18, Herrick Jr. enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps Reserves, at Fort George G. Meade, "for the duration of the war...plus six months." He was then living in Maryland, and gave his education as "three years of high school", and was "single without dependents."
His father, Herrick Sr., died in 1962 and was buried in the family plot in Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, marked by a large stone proclaiming, "DYER."
His mother, W. Irene Dyer, died in 1978, and like her children Herrick and Eleanor Lucile, was then living in Jamaica, Queens, New York. She was returned to Cleveland and buried at her husband's side.
The brother and sister both passed away at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens- Eleanor Lucile Dyer on February 22, 2oo2; and Herrick H. Dyer Jr. just three months later on May 27, 2002. They are both buried on Hart Island.
Sources: U.S. Social Security Death Index; U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; U.S. WWII Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946; 1930 U.S. Federal Census; U.S. Dept. of Veteran's Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010; www.findagrave; The Builders of a Great City: San Francisco Representative Men Vol. 1, pages 151-153.