Gerald ‘Gerry’ Delaney passed away in the company of his family on April 1st, 2021, after a short struggle with cancer. He was ninety-one years old. Gerry was born in Chicago on September 12th, 1929. After graduating Lane Technical High School he became an apprentice electrician working with his father Alvin Delaney, beginning a career that would take him from Chicago to Alaska and back before moving to Portland in the 1970s. With his brother Al, Gerry attended the Illinois Institute of Technology’s night school for most of twenty years while simultaneously working full time as a construction electrician; they both graduated with degrees in Electrical Engineering. He was a proud member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for sixty-five years, both as an electrician and later as an electrical engineer. He remained a pillar of his community throughout his retirement, both in volunteer work and in the lives of his family and friends, among whom his irrepressible good humor and quiet wisdom were proverbial.
Gerry is survived by his second wife Joan Koessler, his children Mark Delaney, Ellen Santarelli, and Rosanne Parry, his eleven grandchildren, and his numerous friends. He goes to join his father Alvin, his mother Ellen Sullivan, his stepmother Rose Taylor, his brothers Al and Patrick, and his first wife Monica. A memorial Mass will be held on July 10th at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, which was Gerry’s parish for more than fifty years. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may be made to Holy Trinity Community Outreach.
“Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of him, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of him.” From St. Patrick’s Blessing
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