Gerald Ely

Never Rode a Bike. Never Told A Lie.

Gerald H. Ely died on April 4, 2022 after a battle with cancer. He lived life well and on his own terms--loving his family intensely and not tolerating BS from anyone--even to his last breath.

Gerry was born in 1939 in New York, the son of German Jewish immigrants who arrived in the US in 1938, fleeing the Nazis.

He was raised by his parents and grandparents in the German-speaking community of Washington Heights. He learned at young age to be smart and sharp-minded and always aim for the best, otherwise he would never keep up in the cut-throat games of bridge with his grandfather, a canine corps officer in World War One (and by Gerry's account, the highest ranking non-commissioned officer in the Kaiser's army).

From his mother, with whom he was especially close, he inherited his love of words. She was as good at Scrabble as his grandfather was at bridge, and Gerry's Scrabble games with her led to a lifelong passion for crossword puzzles. For decades he did at least 3 puzzles a day, every day until his last. Hours before his death, he was still filling in the squares. (One of the last he answered--and with ease-- 6 Down: "'Someone who takes a lot of chances.' 9 letters, starting with D-A-R.") He passed this love crossword puzzles on to his granddaughters.

Childhood in Washington Heights included stickball games on Elwood Street with his best friend Gary. It included getting chased and beaten up by the Irish kids who wanted his lunch money. It did not include any bicycles. (Gerry and Gary later became relatives when Gerry married Sandra and Gary married Rose Ann--cousins from Nova Scotia. Irish-Jewish amity and camaraderie eventually won the day, as Gerry became a respected and beloved member of the Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Company. In all his 82 years, Gerry never rode a bike.)

An alum of Bronx Science, he tested into City College as one of the top high school students in NYC. At CCNY, he joined ROTC in the years when another student, Colin Powell, was heading the Pershing Rifles there. ROTC expanded Gerry's horizons, enabling him to travel the country for the first time (and travel out of the country for a memorable time in Juarez, too.) School, on the other hand, did not teach him much. Whenever Gerry reflected on his college years, he always credited ROTC more than anything else as the place where he gained his education. There, he learned discipline and he learned leadership.

Nevertheless, Gerry was never inclined to take orders from anyone--neither professors nor commanding officers. While at school, a friend got him a job working the night shift at a trucking company, where he entered truckers' reports into a database--(a lot more fun than it sounds, because the truckers reported on a lot more than just hauling loads). With a taste for fine clothes, he decided that he'd rather work and earn money than sit in a classroom or march in formation. He left CCNY and ROTC and took a job with Morgan Guarantee signing stock certificates.

Gerry was a leader in the first generation of Information Technology on Wall Street, long before they were calling it IT. In the 1950s, he was the top performer in Morgan's company-wide test for people to start working in a new field--computer programming. Morgan gave the programming position to someone else, but Gerry's interest was sparked. In 1963, he left Morgan to become a computer programmer at Schroders Bank and then moved on in the late 1960s to Merrill Lynch, where he spent the rest of his career.

From his first job as a project manager at Merrill Lynch, he rose to become Director of Information Systems, leading Merrill's IT strategy at the start of the digital revolution. He himself was one of its revolutionaries. A risk taker and continual innovator, he used his position at Merrill to push for the breakup of the Bell system and led Merrill to look beyond Bell and diversify its communications strategy. He brought Merrill in to become the initial and/or lead private investor for 1980s-era startups like Financial News Network (now CNBC) and Innovative Market Systems (now Bloomberg LP). He was particularly proud of the decision to support Bloomberg and valued his friendship with Michael Bloomberg.

In 1985, as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Teleport Communications--a joint venture between Merrill, Western Union, the City of New York, and the Port Authority of NY and NJ-- he led the pioneering effort to bring high speed data and video services via satellite and fiber optic cable to financial service companies and other businesses. (Remember, this was 1985.) For his work with Teleport and the Teleport Association, which expanded the project globally, he received the key to City of Osaka, Japan.

Gerry also helped Merrill use its communications technology in the service of others. In the 1980s, long distance and international calling was still very expensive. Gerry conceived and initiated a community service project, Christmas Calls, which placed Merrill Lynch's WATS lines at the disposal of the elderly, enabling them to place free holiday calls to loved ones anywhere in the world. For this, Merrill was recognized the by the White House, and Gerry personally accepted the award from President Ronald Reagan.

Even as Gerry rose to higher positions and greater responsibilities as an executive on Wall Street, he made family his first priority, turning down positions overseas. Commuting from central New Jersey--the grind made even more insufferable on rainy days when the wet intensified the odor of vomit left behind by a child's upset stomach in the back of his 1974 Dodge Colt--Gerry was always first to the office. He arrived early enough so that he could leave leave early enough to be home for dinner every evening. Dinner together as a family was a non-negotiable for him--both before Sandra's passing in 1977 and afterward, when his presence at home every night carried even more weight for their children, Andrew and Pamela. Through the bereavement, the father and his two children built a relationship of exceptional intensity, intimacy and loyalty.

In a 2009 autobiographical interview, Gerry said, "All that work doesn't mean sh*t because nobody remembers, all right. There's no memorials. But children and grandchildren are things that you really leave behind and they mean something. And from that point of view, I think I've done well under some difficult conditions."

Gerry married Sandra Parelman in 1963, and their union was strong, loving, and happy. Their son, Andrew, arrived in 1964; their daughter, Pamela, in 1968. Their family was larger than just the four of them; Sandra's large, raucous, lubster-loving Canadian family became Gerry's own, and they remained close through all the decades after Sandra's death, for the rest of Gerry's life. In addition to trips up to the Maritimes, Gerry and Sandra took the kids on annual vacations to National Parks and other places around the US--trips that inspired Andrew and Pamela to plan similar vacations for their own children.

Gerry's third marriage, to Denise, produced two more exceptional children--Evan and Eric--known colloquially as "The Boys," and Brangelinaed by Gerry as "Evic." Gerry's retirement in the early 1990s gave him time to focus on raising Evan and Eric. The three shared a love of hockey, and Gerry cultivated Evan and Eric's interest and ability in the sport, traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard with them as they played in ice hockey tournaments, building a street hockey rink in the back yard for them, and playing with them until the little squirts turned into 6'2" hulks and their body checks became objectively dangerous.

In his early 50s, Gerry retired. He turned his vacation house on New Jersey's Long Beach Island into his permanent home. There, he married Joan, his wife of 25 years with whom he shared numerous interests including a love of jazz, Jeopardy, and puzzling. Although he enjoyed the quiet of beach town life in the winter, he remained community-minded and ever principled. After a productive but turbulent stint as a synagogue president, he became a volunteer policeman with the Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Company, where he won recognition as the most frequent emergency responder, multiple years running. In later years, as the Company's treasurer, he was an innovative fundraiser.

Gerry spent his 30-year retirement doing only and exactly what he loved doing. His daily routine included eating a breakfast of cake or an Entenmann's chocolate donut, walking a four mile round trip to pick up the newspaper at the local deli, watching The Price is Right, listening to jazz and blues on the stereo, basking in the sun reading mystery novels, playing the horses (and always honing his system), swimming, watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune in the evening, and doing crossword puzzles throughout the day. At least three puzzles every day. Usually more.

What he most loved doing was taking pride in his children and grandchildren and in his sons- and daughters-in-law. Gerry cherished them all. Their success was his number one priority. He held all of them to the same high standards that his canine-corps grandfather had held him to from the earliest days of those cut-throat bridge games, and to which always he held himself. He saw potential in each of them, wanted each of them to reach their highest, and relished in their achievements.

Gerald Ely is survived by his wife Joan, his children Andrew Ely (Rachel Kanter), Pamela Kelner (Saul), Eric Ely (Chelsey), and Evan Ely (Erin), his grandchildren Boaz and Shoshana Kelner, Siona, Pacey and Avital Ely, Elliot and Charlotte Pototsky, and his newest addition and the light of his last months, Cameron Ely.

For those who wish to attend virtually, the funeral service will be available via Facebook Live.

https://fb.me/e/1wLzsqpAq

*NOTE: Viewers do not need to have a Facebook account to access the livestream. However, if a viewer attempts to access the link any time before 1:00PM on Tuesday, Facebook will prompt the viewer to log in (to avoid this: viewers must wait until the link is live at 1:00PM)

Funeral Services for Gerald will be at Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels 44 Wilson Avenue Manalapan, NJ on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 1:00 PM.

Burial will be at Congregation Sons of Israel Cemetery, 61 Wood Avenue, Manalapan, NJ 07726.

The Period of Mourning will take place at the residence of Andrew and Rachel through Monday evening.

Donations in Gerald's memory may be made to Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Company or to Radio WBGO.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.bloomfieldcoopermanalapan.com for the Ely family.