Geraldine "Gerri" Desmond

Gerri Desmond of Woodside, Queens, passed away on Sunday, April 26th. She was 85. Born in Queens to Joseph and Geraldine Desmond on October 9, 1940, Gerri was one of three children. Raised in the borough alongside her brother Dennis and sister Joan, her childhood was filled with a love defined by her mother’s unending devotion and her father’s warm charm.

These traits were passed down to Gerri as she stepped into adulthood. Beginning a career in Manhattan’s corporate arena, Gerri’s exact attention to detail and boundless brilliance were matched by her sharp wit and constant ebullience. She thrived in her career, supporting executives across industries. With the growth of her career came the growth of her family. With the birth of her sister Joan’s sons Andrew, Joseph, Robert, Kevin, and Christopher, and the birth of her brother’s children Jane, Patrick, and Courtney, Gerri eagerly stepped into the role of aunt. As the Desmond Family expanded, so did Gerri’s career.

Stepping into a role at the New York Headquarters of Pfizer, it was here that she met her beloved best friends, Frank, and his wife, Regina. Their collective friendship transcended the definition of the word. Upon the birth of Frank and Regina’s sons Jonathan, Christian, and Frank, Gerri’s role as aunt expanded. Frank and Regina’s boys had the glorious gift of knowing firsthand just what it was like to be loved by their Aunt Gerri- a brand of kindness, affection, genial care, and innate tenderness that is rarely, if ever again, to be seen in a person.

These qualities contributed to her natural ease as a caregiver and proved essential as her mother required more support in the latter half of her life. Gerri embraced the role of caregiver, providing her mother with a gentle care and constant diligence that made the rockiest of roads smooth. This was one of Gerri’s many gifts- and she enacted it free of presumption or expectation.

She would be the first to downplay the breadth of her generosity, but it wasn’t just those closest to her who felt its reach. Gerri established herself as an essential member of her community, existing not just for herself and her family, but for everyone she shared the world with.

If her friends and family were her first love, her second was New York City. A lifelong New Yorker, Gerri’s affection for the city pulsed nearly as deeply as her affection for those she shared it with. Though her travels took her across the world, there was no place she visited that bested the joy New York offered her.

Upon her retirement from Pfizer, Gerri took more time to satiate her endless thirst for knowledge and deep passion for creativity. In the mundane, she found magic, in the everyday, she identified brilliance, and in the fantastic, she discovered questions.

Taking frequent trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she knew the layout of the Met by memory. Her interests were unrestricted by genre, as she found herself excited by work from every corner of the world. What she absorbed at the Met she would bring to her art classes, creating paintings and sketches that served as portraits of her life and the world she shared. She used her knowledge to build community and her passions to connect, sharing her excitement and fascination with those around her- from her many friends to strangers. She made every minute meaningful, fueled by joy, fervor, curiosity, and kindness- qualities that were all contagious.

Hers was a spirit that turned the coldest of rooms warm and made the darkest of spaces incandescent.

Now, though her many friends and family feel the magnitude of her loss, it is impossible not to see the immense glow of her presence; one that continues to shine bright, strong enough to illuminate all of New York City.

Gerri is survived by her brother Dennis, beloved friends Frank and Regina, and nieces and nephews, Andrew, Joseph, Robert, Kevin, Christopher, Jane, Patrick, Courtney, Jonathan, Christian, and Frank