The Nation - News from Jan. 25, 1987

R. Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania state treasurer who committed suicide during a televised news conference, was eulogized by his wife as “a hero” at a memorial service packed by 500 mourners. “He felt shamed and like a failure. But Budd was not a failure. Budd was a hero,” Joanne Dwyer said at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Hershey, Pa. Dwyer, 47, shot himself in the mouth Thursday with a .357 magnum pistol. Dwyer was to have been sentenced Friday for a federal bribery conviction. He faced 55 years in prison. Joanne Dwyer said she believes her husband was innocent.