Donald Frank Gerdy

Donald Frank Gerdy slipped unexpectedly into eternity on Thursday, July 25, 2024, during what was meant to be a routine heart procedure. We can only imagine the reunion he had with his beloved Sharon, whom he had missed beyond measure the past six years.

Don was born in Cook County Hospital in Chicago on February 25, 1939; his name was Allen John Albert. Little is known about his birth parents. But he counts his second birthday and the beginning of his “life” as Thanksgiving 1939, when he was adopted by Joseph Gerdy and Gretta Eliane Mantz Gerdy, the parents who raised him, loved him, and made him the person he was. Growing up in Chicago with his brothers, Richard and Jim, was an adventure for Don. As a child Don loved going to the movies at the Beverly Theater and the Melody Lane Drive-in, exploring the Museum of Science and Industry (especially on Thanksgiving mornings when he, his father, and brothers were banished from the house so his mother could prepare the meal), participating in Boy Scouts, taking music lessons (including a year of violin and eight years of accordion), going to Blackhawks and football games with his brother Jim, spending summers at the lake, and going to Chicago White Sox baseball games with his father.

Don graduated high school in January 1957. He attended Drake University in Iowa where he majored in Social Studies; he also obtained a Master’s degree in Secondary School Administration. Later he attended Michigan State University where he earned his PhD in Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education.

Perhaps the most important event in his college career occurred in 1958. Don and his friends were attending a Parrish youth meeting when the doorbell rang. He opened it to find a young co-ed, Sharon Hurley, soaking wet. She had been at a family reunion and had got caught in the rain. He drove her home that night and then, when he got home, Don told his roommate, who knew Sharon from high school, that he intended to ask her out. The answer: he would never get a date. Don responded, “I’d better, because I’m going to marry her.” He did, four years later, just after her graduation on June 22, 1962. (They were later sealed in the Salt Lake Temple).

Don and Sharon started their teaching careers in Albert City, Iowa, and then moved to Michigan for graduate school. They moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1968, where they lived until retirement in 2002. Boulder is where their family began to grow with the birth of three daughters. It is also where the family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in June 1982. During that time, Don taught school in numerous capacities (including running his own school for at-risk students) and held many other positions as he provided for his family. Ultimately, Don left full-time education and went to work for the Regional Transportation District, first as a driver and then as a supervisor. Although he was not formally in the classroom, Don never quit teaching and touching people’s hearts and minds whether from the driver’s seat of a city bus or while working security at the local hospital. After retirement, Don and Sharon moved to Sandy, Utah to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren, and Don continued to touch others through his service. Don and Sharon served as employment center missionaries, summer missionaries in Palmyra, New York, and Don developed his love for family history work, ultimately indexing well over 100,000 names. He also started his more than two decades as an ordinance worker in the Jordan River and Draper, Utah temples.

But the biggest arena for Don’s love and service was his family. Don was the consummate cheerleader for his daughters, his sons-in-law, his grandchildren, and for countless friends and neighbors throughout the years. He never missed a concert, a soccer game, a Court of Honor, or a recital. For the last four years Don was proud to say that his roommate was his grandson, Abram. And during the last 23 months he proudly supported his grandson Matthew as he served his mission in Arcadia, California. Don looked forward to every Monday when he would receive Matthew’s letters (which he dutifully printed out and placed in two large binders along with the letters that Don wrote to Matt each week) and when he would participate in the family video call with Matt. He also loved spending time with Hannah Claire after school and during the summer, taking her to cross-country practices and other activities. Although their time together was less frequent, Don cherished the time that he spent with Kristina, Hannah, and Jonah, and loved receiving text messages from them. Truly, if you had to sum up Don in one phrase it would be “family man.”

Don’s heart broke permanently on January 7, 2018, when his beloved Sharon passed away after a nearly

year-long battle with ovarian cancer. On January 8, 2024, he wrote in his journal: “One day at the Temple the brother at the recommend desk and I were talking, and he asked me what I missed most about not having Sharon. I thought for a second and then said, ‘everything.’ I could not pick out just one thing because Sharon was so many things and such an important part of my life. I miss her presence, her voice as she talked and sang, her love of our family, her smile. I could go on and on, but I think my original answer tells it all: I miss everything about Sharon. My life is empty without her. We are blessed because we know Heavenly Father’s plan and that families are eternal. I know when my time comes, I will see her and be with her again.” We know they are happily reunited now.

Don is survived by his children Kristin (Glenn Kyle), Cheryl, and Diane (Kyle Iman), his beloved grandchildren, Abram, Matthew, and Hannah Iman, and Kristina, Hannah, and Jonah Kyle; and his brothers Richard (Donna) and Jim and their children, and his sister-in-law, Mary Hurley O’Boyle, and brother-in-law, Jim Hurley (Janet), and their children.

A viewing will be held on Thursday evening, August 1, from 6:00-8:00 at the Mount Jordan Stake Center located at 9331 S. 300 East, Sandy, Utah. A funeral service will be held on Friday, August 2, at 11:00 a.m., with a visitation held from 9:30 until 10:45 a.m., at the same church. Interment will be at Wasatch Lawn, 3401 South Highland Drive, SLC, UT 84106.