Jerry and I became fast friends when we were sophomores. He was a left guard on the football team, I played left tackle so we had a close relationship. He was a clown, always coming up with goofy things. I was in the Smith- Hughes class with him. One day he came up with this thing he called "the fast walk" it caught on with all of us in the class, to see who could do the fastest and craziest walk. Sometimes it would get out of hand and guys would slip and fall which would bring us all to our knees. I also worked with Jerry at Clyde Iron Works. I was so shocked when I heard of his passing. I could not believe someone with such a great sense of humor could be so depressed.
I got another story about Jerry, and a a lot of other merry pranksters. It was the summer of our junior year 1965 and it was a hot night in Duluth. We were sitting in the parking lot at A&Dubs when someone said "let's go skinny dipping up at Northland Country Club. So we had about three or four cars full of classmates, yes there were both genders 👫. We all parked our cars along Superior Street down towards Ordean Jr. It was around two in the morning so there was no traffic. All the guys decided to leave our cloths in the cars. We ran up the street and into the bushes where we knew there was an opening in the fence next to the changing room and out door showers. Well we were having a good old time springing off the diving board and trying not to be too loud. All of a sudden there was a loud splash when Jerry jumped into the deep end of the pool sitting on a heavy chair. He sank to the bottom and gave us all a goofy wave. Everyone started laughing WAY too loud so we all decided to head for the cars. The girls hurried and got dressed and took off for the cars. I think I was in the lead of the guys and got to the car first. Jerry was still in the pool when we all took off for the cars and was the last to be running down Superior street (his car was a little bit farther down than the one I was in). As he was running (still in his birthday suit) this car came by going west. I could hear the ladies in the car laughing and saying "OMG! Did you see the size of that thing?" We were all laughing so hard we could hardly start the cars and get out of there.....
David Coleman
Bill Sobczak
Jerry and I became fast friends when we were sophomores. He was a left guard on the football team, I played left tackle so we had a close relationship. He was a clown, always coming up with goofy things. I was in the Smith- Hughes class with him. One day he came up with this thing he called "the fast walk" it caught on with all of us in the class, to see who could do the fastest and craziest walk. Sometimes it would get out of hand and guys would slip and fall which would bring us all to our knees. I also worked with Jerry at Clyde Iron Works. I was so shocked when I heard of his passing. I could not believe someone with such a great sense of humor could be so depressed.
Bill Sobczak
I got another story about Jerry, and a a lot of other merry pranksters. It was the summer of our junior year 1965 and it was a hot night in Duluth. We were sitting in the parking lot at A&Dubs when someone said "let's go skinny dipping up at Northland Country Club. So we had about three or four cars full of classmates, yes there were both genders 👫. We all parked our cars along Superior Street down towards Ordean Jr. It was around two in the morning so there was no traffic. All the guys decided to leave our cloths in the cars. We ran up the street and into the bushes where we knew there was an opening in the fence next to the changing room and out door showers. Well we were having a good old time springing off the diving board and trying not to be too loud. All of a sudden there was a loud splash when Jerry jumped into the deep end of the pool sitting on a heavy chair. He sank to the bottom and gave us all a goofy wave. Everyone started laughing WAY too loud so we all decided to head for the cars. The girls hurried and got dressed and took off for the cars. I think I was in the lead of the guys and got to the car first. Jerry was still in the pool when we all took off for the cars and was the last to be running down Superior street (his car was a little bit farther down than the one I was in). As he was running (still in his birthday suit) this car came by going west. I could hear the ladies in the car laughing and saying "OMG! Did you see the size of that thing?" We were all laughing so hard we could hardly start the cars and get out of there.....