Jerry Verdi

Jerry Verdi was born in Brooklyn NY September 26th, 1939, at a time our country was in the depths of hard times. His family was no exception. They had to scrap for food and other necessities, and like many others, he learned ways to survive. After his parents divorced, at age 6 he bounced around between his mom and dad, and basically raised himself on the streets of Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Sheepshead Bay. He had an interesting life at an early age, wandering the Coney Island Boardwalk getting into mischief with friends, doing a little work as a carny, even playing cards with Jojo the Dog Faced Boy. (Dad always said, his face wasn’t like a dogs, he was just really ugly.) He dropped out of high school, and while getting into some mischief, he would also spend time at museums, asking the employees questions, and learning about history. When his dad died at the young age of 39 of heart failure, dad was shocked, as anyone would be. He could have chosen a very different path that would not have led him to good places. But he was smart, and he wanted to be something. He joined the US Navy at 17 and found a trade. He was a radio man stationed in Puerto Rico during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and heard some very alarming communications. He met a young Andrea Polak in 1964 and got married and started a family. He worked hard at being a good husband and father. He instilled a sense of pride in country and importance of family. Although they didn’t have much, they provided a good education and a strong background in the Catholic faith. He was involved in his family’s elementary school and, church, St. Rose of Lima. While staying in the Navy reserves, he began work in the private sector learning computers and networking. He worked at the New York Stock Exchange for a while, then at Control Data, then at Drexel, Burnham, Lambert. In 1979, he took a job with NEC, which took him away from his family for months at a time. He lived in Japan while he was away and was able to travel the world. He’s been to just about every continent and most of the free world. In 1981 he moved his family to Irving, Texas. Eventually he left NEC to work for EDS as a technical project manager. Among the many projects he worked on was the network system for the Space Shuttle Discovery. He was assigned to work in London, England in the early 90’s where he spent much of the decade. He and Andrea divorced in 1997, and Jerry moved back to Irving and took early retirement. He spent a lot of time with his oldest son and daughter-in-law and his grandchildren. In February of 2003, Jerry met Nettie Kuhn, and they were married in December. He very much enjoyed spending time with Nettie and her family in Kansas, among those, his brothers and sisters-in-law and also his step-son and his wife and grandchildren. They enjoyed travelling together, eating out, and gathering together with family whenever they could. They enjoyed a joyous, loving, wonderful relationship with he and Nettie’s family until his death on January 10th, 2013.

He is survived by his wife, Nettie Kuhn; a son Jim Verdi, and his wife Toni; a son, Tom Verdi, and his wife Kirsten; a daughter, Kara, and her husband Chris Edwards; a step-son Toby Kuhn, and his wife Marla; Grandchildren, Gage McQuade, Nicolas Verdi, Mia Verdi, Colt Edwards, Colby Edwards, Sofia Verdi, Abigail Verdi, Isabelle Verdi, Tyler Kuhn, Taryn Kuhn, and Cheyenne Todd; a brother, Frank Verdi and many cousins and friends.