Jerry was born and raised in a small community in Albany, Illinois along the muddy Mississippi river.  Jerry still resides in Albany today.  He is the youngest son of three boys.  He graduated from Fulton High school in 1977.  He has one daughter, Nichole and grandsons, Hunter and Nolan.  Jerry works for Alcoa Mill Products in Bettendorf, Iowa.  Jerry also does volunteer work for the Special Olympics, YWCA, and local races in the community. His life lessons were learned from his grandfather on how to be compassionate with others and to make life simple.

Jerry enjoys many hobbies. Hiking in the woods, enjoying the nature and wildlife, or viewing the mountains, and maybe climbing a few too!  Motorcycle riding has became his new passion, along with  bicycle riding. Jerry bikes either to help recover from injuries, or for an alternative to training.  Recently he has got his grandson involved in bike riding with a trail along bike.  The two of them enjoy riding on the local bike path. Weight-lifting is an important hobby but also a great tool for marathon training.

  Jerry was a heavy smoker and overweight when he decided to take up running to get back into shape in 1994.  He first tried out small races but went on to do his first marathon in 1995 in Chicago.  He had no experience and no one to give him advice and learned that day he had a lot to learn yet.  Jerry became determined that running marathons was something he wanted to continue to do.

Jerry became a member of the 50 and DC Marathon Group in 1999 after completing 20 states as in the old rules.  After being in the group a few years he felt there was a need to have a website to help with the growing number of members.  Jerry with the help of his web-designer friend Bob developed a website for the group in 2001. He also is the web host of the website, taking care of all the members’ stats and etc.  Jerry is now the Group Director of the 50 and DC Marathon Group since December 1, 2002.

  Through his travels on marathons, he has developed many friendships around the world.  Jerry has traveled twice to Cuba with World T.E.A.M. Sports to run marathons, but the main goal of the trips was to help the disabled Cuban athletes with hand-cycles and medical injury prevention.  His compassion for helping the disabled has enabled him to help them with their goals of doing marathons by allowing them to join the 50 and DC Group under special rules.

Long term goals for Jerry include running marathons in Russia and Ireland. And hopefully in the future have his two grandsons by his side running a marathon with him.   Jerry lives by his motto of “I can, I will, I’ll try, I do.”