02/20/2024
William "Bill" Cheeks left us last Saturday afternoon in the company of loved ones. He will be missed by the many whose lives he positively influenced.
BIll worked for 50 years as an advocate for financial literacy, with a specific attention to communities of color and youth. This included careers at Equifax, JumpStart Coalition, and ABBA Associates.
Bill also worked relentlessly behind the scenes to advance policies in Washington, DC and in statehouses across the country to promote economic opportunity and fairness. His primary focus was on credit reporting and scoring. It was within this domain that Bill and PERC began nearly two decades of collaboration.
Most notably, Bill worked with PERC to promote reforms enabling common sense policy--giving people credit for paying their non-financial bills on time (e.g. rent, gas, water, electric, broadband, wireless, CATV, etc), enabling them to speak to credit bureaus about their credit reports and credit scores without jumping through hoops and rings, and helping consumer access for free government maintained sources of data for their benefit.
Bill was a mentor to all at PERC, and we benefitted immensely from his generosity with his wisdom. Many will never know how much of an impact Bill had on technical consumer credit policies, and how he shaped the thinking of leaders within the financial services industry, in Congress and state legislatures--but those of us who dedicated our careers to fighting for social and economic justice well know what a true champion he was, and what an inspiration are remains.
Thank you sir, and Rest In Peace.
