Gerry Robert Coleman

Gerry Robert Coleman passed away quietly in the presence of his wife, Wynne, and his brother-in-law, John Gatsis, on Monday, August 11, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina at the age of 78. A fraternal twin, he was born on February 25, 1947 in Westchester County, New York. He was named after his ancestor, Elbridge Gerry, an American Founding Father. (Contrary to intuition, the name, Gerry, is pronounced with a hard “G”.).

Gerry grew up in Westchester County in the village of Bronxville, noted for its charming downtown. Business professionals and those of other respected vocations lived there and commuted by train from Bronxville into Grand Central Station to work in Manhattan. Among those was Gerry’s father, an attorney for Allied Chemical Corporation, who during World War II was appointed by the U.S. Army to serve under Chief Justice Robert Jackson as an executive assistant. Jackson negotiated the creation of an International Military Tribunal and prosecuted the Nuremburg Trials.

Gerry had a variety of interests. While attending Bronxville High School, he set an athletic record as a mile runner. He also loved tennis, skiing, and other sports. And during the last twenty years of his life, he worked out regularly at the North Carolina State University gym and took long walks around the park at the North Carolina Museum of Art. For his high school senior year, he transferred from Bronxville High School to Proctor Academy, a prep school in Andover, New Hampshire. Later, he graduated from Syracuse University in New York with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. He had many friends in the art department at Syracuse and did a few art projects himself that showed his natural talent, but literature and writing were his true passions. His twin brother, Larry, was an aspiring visual artist in the East Village of New York City.

After graduating from Syracuse University, Gerry briefly lived with some college friends in a house in Bronxville and even drove a taxi during that time. He then traveled briefly around Europe until he learned he had been drafted into the US Army to serve during the last three years of the Vietnam era. He was an electronics technician in the Signal Corps in Germany and drove military trucks, an assignment he enjoyed. Upon his discharge from the Army, he worked as a property manager for Douglas Elliman Gibbons and Ives, a mid-town Manhattan company that provides residential property management for co-ops, condos, and rental properties on Fifth Avenue, Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, and other upscale Manhattan areas. He later worked as a commercial real estate broker for several well-known Manhattan real estate companies, most notably, Zeckendorf Development. Upon moving to Raleigh in 1992, he immediately chose to be a Commercial Real Estate Appraiser for Birch Appraisal Group and loved this work so much he stayed with Birch Appraisal until his retirement in 2014.

While working in Manhattan, he met his future wife, Alice Wynne Gatsis (Wynne). Wynne was the daughter of recently retired Army Brigadier General, Andrew John Gatsis, a native of Birmingham, Alabama. Wynne had come to New York to pursue graduate studies in piano accompaniment at Manhattan School of Music. Her maternal family lived in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and when her mother (Alice Wynne Suiter Gatsis) inherited a house in Rocky Mount, Wynne’s parents decided to retire there in 1975. Gerry and Wynne married in Rocky Mount, NC in 1978 and made their home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later in Brooklyn Heights until they moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1992.

Gerry’s mother was a member of the Christian Science Church founded by Mary Baker Eddy in Boston in 1879. As young boys, Gerry and his twin brother Larry attended Christian Science Sunday School in Bronxville. In the late 1980s, Gerry returned to his Christian Science roots and began attending Christian Science branch church services in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1990, he and Wynne both became members of Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist, in Greenwich Village, NYC and when they moved to Raleigh two years later, they quickly joined First Church of Christ, Scientist in Raleigh. In addition to branch church membership, they became members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, MA, the administrative arm and publishing headquarters for the global Christian Science movement. In Raleigh, Gerry participated in various committees at his local branch church and served more than once on the church executive board.

He inherited a love of gardening from his mother. While living in Brooklyn Heights, he attended classes at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where he earned a certificate as a “citizen pruner”, took a flower arranging class and learned how to grow bonsai. He later put his knowledge to work in Raleigh by volunteering at the United Methodist Church Community Garden on Ridge Road. And he designed a beautiful flower arrangement once a month for his church’s Wednesday and Sunday church services. Gerry enjoyed reading books, especially about history and the arts. Although, not a trained musician, he had a great appreciation of classical music and listened to it often on the classical music radio stations in New York and North Carolina.

Gerry thrived on interacting with people and often worked as a volunteer. He served on the Boards of his Homeowner’s Association, Wake County Taxpayers Association, and Heart for Home School. He volunteer-tutored children in reading and other basic skills through interaction with public and private schools, homeschools, and other community programs.

Another great passion of his was teaching about the history and the principles of the U.S. Constitution with an emphasis on the liberty that our founding documents afford its citizens. As a military veteran in Raleigh, he supervised the American Legion National High School Oratorical Scholarship Program, a national contest for high school students that challenges students to deliver speeches on American history, the U.S. Constitution, civics, and citizenship. And for ten years, assisted by Wynne, he taught the 15-unit one-semester curriculum of Institute on the Constitution (IOTC) free of charge to high school students and adults alike. The meeting spaces were graciously provided at various times by local church pastors, a well-known Raleigh real estate developer, and a North Carolina candidate for Congress who wanted his campaign staff to know about the U.S. Constitution.

Gerry was preceded in death by his parents, Lawrence Arver Coleman, Jr. and Barbara Baldwin Coleman; his older sister Patricia Coleman Reynolds (Patsy); and his fraternal twin brother, Lawrence Arver Coleman, III (Larry).

Gerry is survived by his nephew, George Remington Reynolds (Rem), his wife, Casey, and their children (Atlanta, Ga.) and by his niece, Barbara Reynolds Kaylor, her husband, Charles, and their children (Greenville, SC).

Gerry’s life will be celebrated in a private family service.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in his honor to:

Longyear Museum at https://www.longyear.org/ Click on “Give Now” Select one of the Funds listed. In the “Special Notes” box at the bottom of the page, note that the donation is in memory of Gerry Coleman Or mail a check to: Longyear Museum, 1125 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02647

Institute on the Constitution (IOTC) at https://www.theamericanview.com/donate Or mail a check to: Institute on the Constitution P.O. Box 76 | Harbeson, Delaware 19951

Iron Academy at https://ironacademy-bloom.kindful.com/. Select “an initiative” which will be shown on the website as the “Gerry Coleman Memorial Fund”. Or mail a check to: Iron Academy 3510 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27612

WCPE Radio, Memorials may be made to the classical music radio station Gerry loved and supported in North Carolina, WCPE, at https://theclassicalstation.org/choose-donation/one-time/ Or mail a check to: ATTN: Membership Services, WCPE, The Classical Station Box 828 Wake Forest, NC 27588

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