Ronald Garfield Cheek Sr., former owner of a Philadelphia preschool, dies at 86

Ronald Garfield Cheek Sr., 86, of Dresher, who owned the Cheek Children’s Center preschool in West Oak Lane, died Thursday, Jan. 21, of cardiac arrest at Fox Subacute at Clara Burke, a skilled nursing center in Plymouth Meeting.

Mr. Cheek loved working with children, his son said, which led him to help operate the preschool that served families in Germantown and West Oak Lane for 38 years.

“He recognized there was a need in minority communities for education before children began kindergarten,” Ronaldo Cheek said.

He knew that children were capable of learning at a much younger age, his son said. “That’s what he wanted to focus on.”

Ronald Garfield Cheek was born in February 1934 in Abington to Olivia Gassaway and John Henry Cheek. He was the second of two sons.

Mr. Cheek used to tell his sons about racial prejudice he endured as a teenager in Abington. He was often harassed by white police officers who told him to get off the sidewalk when white people were walking by, according to his son.

After graduating from Abington High in 1952, Mr. Cheek joined the National Guard and served from 1952 to 1955.

He was working at a meat-processing plant in 1953 when he met Dominga DeJesus, with whom he had three sons.

In 1965, he married Sheryl Klein. They had one daughter, but divorced.

He later married and divorced Charlene Barbour.

Mr. Cheek began working at the Frankford Arsenal, the former sprawling ammunitions plant in Bridesburg, in 1967. At the time, he was living in Mount Airy and very active in community organizations.

He took classes in sociology and education at LaSalle College. Afterward, he and Klein bought a former inn in West Oak Lane, renovated it, and turned it into the school.

He co-owned the Cheek Children’s Center from its opening in 1967 until he retired and sold it in 2005.

Mr. Cheek was often seen as a father figure to the many children whose lives he touched. Some of them and their families never forgot him.

When his father was hospitalized after suffering two strokes in October, Ronaldo Cheek said, a young man who had recently graduated from Howard University and now lives in Washington drove by Mr. Cheek’s house.

The young man said that he had attended Mr. Cheek’s preschool and that he often stopped by to say hello when he was in town.

While Mr. Cheek was in the intensive care unit at Abington Hospital, a nurse’s aide told Ronaldo Cheek her children were pupils at his father’s preschool.

Later, when he was admitted to the Fox Subacute skilled nursing center, a nurse there said Mr. Cheek had not only taught her children but had helped her mother buy a house.

“He was a very outgoing person and very well-loved,” his son said. “He was a loving friend and would help anyone that needed help.”

Mr. Cheek loved cars and went to auto shows and auctions, where he bought and sold them. As a young man, he was involved in racing.

His most prized car, which he continued to drive until recently, was a 1934 Model A Ford.

In addition to his son and his second and third ex-wives, Mr. Cheek is survived by a daughter, Rhonda Henley; two other sons, Anthony R. and Carlos; six grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

A viewing will be held from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, at the Bruce R. Hawkins Funeral Home, 6828 Old York Road, Philadelphia. A private funeral for the family will follow. Burial will be at Whitemarsh Memorial Park in Ambler.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated where Cheek went to college, details of his marriages and his first role as a co-owner, but not operator, of the children’s center.