Jerry was born in New York City on July 29, 1942. He moved to Los Angeles with his parents and sister at a young age. He grew up on the west side of Los Angeles and attended high school and some college locally.
His parents started a dry cleaning supply company and he started working for them as a teenager. After his fathers death he became the president and part owner, with his mother, of the business. After her death he sold the business to a larger dry cleaning supply company, but continued to work for them in a sales capacity, calling on all the customers he had been dealing with since his teen years.
In high school he began shooting and became an accomplished skeet shooter, competing in matches across the country. His love of shooting and guns remained with him throughout his life.
He also took up car racing and competed in time trials around the greater LA area. He became friendly with the Nieson racing team and accompanied them to races around the country. He was an avid student of automobiles and would read many auto magazines cover to cover and then go back and read them again. Many of his friends would consult him before buying a new car.
In the late 70s his gunsmith had a dog that was always in the store, that Jerry greatly admired. When she had puppies Jerry asked for one. Guess what breed she was a Brittany. Windy changed his life. He started training her and it was suggested that he attend a Brittany club event. Besides the bird dog hunting people, he also met Agnes & Joe Rodrigues. Agnes talked him into trying to show Wendy. So Jerry started both showing her and competing in field trials and she became a Dual Champion. This is the ultimate achievement in the Brittany world. After Windy came Grouch and Fanny, who also competed in both field trials and shows. Since he had been going to field trials he greatly admired the big running All Age dogs and decided to try and find a really good quality pup who might develop into an All Age dog. That is when he got Blazing Can-Dee.
About this time he met Barbara at a dog show in Northern CA. They had a long distance relationship until she moved to southern CA in 1988 with her 3 Brittanys. They had a combined total of 7 dogs. For the next 23 years they happily built a life together.
They retired to Prescott in 2009 and have made many new friends here as well as enjoying their friends from CA who are now in Arizona.
Service:
A gathering of friends and family will take place at 1:00 p.m. Friday, December 16, 2011 with "sharing of memories" at 1:30 p.m. at the Arizona Ruffner Wakelin Funeral Home, 303 S Cortez St. in Prescott.
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