Gerald Gherardi passed away early morning on Monday, December 20, 2021, surrounded by family after a hard-fought battle against cancer.  Gerald "Jerry" Gherardi was born and raised in Quincy, MA, and attended North Quincy High where he excelled in Track and Field and became one of Massachusetts' fastest runners in the 440-yard events.  After high school, he attended and graduated from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy then took his first job as a pharmacist working for the U.S. Public Health Service in Alaska and on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Globe, AZ. Following these two assignments and over the course of the next decade, he took lengthy sabbaticals from work to travel and explore the world. After one two-year trip to Africa, Europe, and Asia, he returned to Boston with only $1.24 remaining in his pocket.  In the mid-1960s as the tensions in Vietnam grew, he felt a patriotic obligation to serve and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.  An avid boxer since youth, he scored a knockout victory to win the USMC's light heavyweight belt at Camp Pendleton, CA.  Following his 4 years of military service, he returned to Boston where he worked as a pharmacist at a city hospital where he met Registered Nurse (the former) Catherine Toher of Pawtucket, RI.  They married in 1969, bought a farm in Pike, NH, and tried their luck at dairy farming for 5 years before he decided to return to the more predictable life of pharmaceuticals and spent the next 20 years at the Veterans Administration in White River Junction, VT.  Always passionate to share his love of travel and adventure with others, in 1985-1986 he packed up the family (and over 80 lbs of schoolbooks) and backpacked throughout New Zealand and Australia while home-schooling four kids.  In his golden years, Jerry stayed busy on the farm in Pike, logging the woods, growing dozens of different varieties of garlic, and attempting to teach his grandchildren how to drive a stick.  He was always a man of his word and if he ever announced that he was going to do something, he did it...his word was his bond.  He taught his children and grandchildren how important it is to help others and how each day is an opportunity to help make this world a better place through sweat, compassion, and unyielding desire to improve the lives of others.

Gerald is survived by his wife Catherine of 52 years, his four children: Jennifer (of Santa Barbara, CA), Michael (of Haverhill), Marcus (of Camp Lejeune, NC), and Matthew (of Pike), and seven grandchildren.  The family will be hosting a celebration of his life at the family farm in late spring.  In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Farmsteads of New England, which provide an active living community for adults with disabilities. www.farmsteads-ne.org/donate