Fredrick Gerard “Jerry” Price was born in New Orleans over 90 years ago. He passed away July 29th, 2024, after complications from hip surgery. As you read this, please know that his family hopes that during your life, at least for a while, you are influenced by someone with his high levels of honesty, integrity, sense of humor, work ethic, kindness and generosity. Jerry’s family is confident he was joyously received by the angels in heaven.
At various times he lived in St. Louis, Chicago, and White Plains, New York. A couple weeks before his freshman year at Jesuit High School in New Orleans he stopped to watch some guys playing a game of pick-up football. They asked him if he wanted to join, he did. Two of those fellows, Mick Montgomery and Glen Jackson, became his best friends for the next 75 years. Jerry was 8 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. A few years later, as the youngest of three boys, he watched as his brothers went off to war. When atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he read about it in the newspapers the next day. Jerry listened to Louis Armstrong and Vic Damone on the radio. He had a nice voice and would occasionally sing a few bars of Fats Domino’s songs Blueberry Hill and Jambalaya right in tune and with near perfect pitch. He enjoyed travelling to Ireland to visit with his distant cousin, a music teacher. Jerry saw the first Chevrolet Corvettes and Ford Mustangs. He watched every Super Bowl and enjoyed watching his beloved Green Bay Packers hoist The Lombardi Trophy four times. He watched rich men send poor kids to Vietnam and elsewhere. He would quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I have a Dream speech to his children.
While visiting his cousin, Dick Averil, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jerry met the love of his life, Elizabeth Dougherty. They were married in 1960 and raised their children in Evansville, Indiana. He was there for Beatlemania, Vietnam, and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. He lived through Watergate, the Dot.com bust and both The Great Depression and The Great Recession. Jerry always endured. He was a kind, happy warrior.
He enjoyed watching his kids play on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan and enjoyed watching his grandchildren water-ski on Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin. He told Alexa to “play Frank Sinatra!” Jerry liked 60 Minutes, All in the Family, and On the Road with Charles Kuralt. He liked well done cheeseburgers and root beer.
Jerry was preceded in death by his parents, George and Claire (O’Hogel) Price; son-in-law, Tom Rennels; brothers, Michael Price, James Price; sister-in-law, Patrcia Koeber; brother-in-law, Terence. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Louise Dougherty Price; children, Gerard Joseph “Joe” Price of Fort Lauderdale, FL, Elizabeth Claire Rennels of Evansville, IN, Jeanne-Marie Price (Tom) Rowland of Chapel Hill, NC, Thomas Michael (Jana) Price of Old Greenwich, CT; grandchildren, Hannan, Margeaux, Madeline, Nicholas, Price, Sean, Thomas, Jonathan, Elyse, Sarah; great grandchildren, Tyler, Mya, Layla, Simon; brothers-in-law, Lewis, Will Dougherty, Arlin; along with many nieces and nephews; and life-long friends, Glen Jackson and Mick Montgomery.
Graveside services were held at Resurrection Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He will be near his mother and father, George Michael and Claire O’Hogel Price, and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Clarence and Anna Marie Dougherty. He will be deeply missed by many friends and family.