Gerald L. Stevens

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday February 2, 2013 at 2:00 PM in the Tigard Covenant Church, for longtime area resident Jerry Stevens, who died Wednesday January 2, 2013, following a courageous battle with cancer. At his passing he was surrounded by family at his care facility, the Hopewell House in Portland.

A native of San Gabriel, California, Jerry had a 31-year career with IBM . However he was a man of many interests, including photography and computers. Jerry moved to Oregon in 1968. Five years later he began a leave of absence to allow the time required to build a house on a 40-acre ranch in Sherwood. He was a “weekend farmer,” raising Black Angus cattle, chickens, and pigs, including the tending of a large garden of which he was very proud. He also enjoyed working on cars in a shop on the property.

Jerry and his wife Melva resided at the Highlands, a retirement community in Tigard, for the last 17 years. He was very active their, serving as President of the Highlands Homeowners Association. During this time he operated “Hi-Net”, a network of e-mailers, and taught many computers classes at Highlands. His service to the wider community also included involvement with the Washington County’s Elder Safe program.

He was a life member of the Masons, first in San Dimas, Calif., and later in the Sherwood Lodge.

The only child of Arthur William Stevens and Doris Louise Wilson, Jerry grew up on a citrus ranch in San Dimas, California, was a member of 4H and had a ham radio operator’s license. “He had the house wired,” Melva said with a chuckle, “so he knew when they were discussing him.”

“Jerry” relocated to Torrance where he graduated from San Pedro High School in 1953 and the National Trade School in Los Angeles in 1955. He married Melva (Phillips) in 1955 and began his career with IBM the following year. At IBM, he was first assigned to the South Gate, California office, transferring to the Portland office in 1968 as a technical specialist and later as a field manager. He transferred to the San Francisco office for the last two years of his career, as an operation assistant.

Jerry and Melva loved to travel the world. Just a few of the places they visited included these favorites: Mexico, Alaska, the Caribbean Islands, Canada, China, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Greece and the Greek islands, Italy, France, Portugal, Turkey, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Besides Melva, his wife of 57 years, Jerry is survived by three children, Roger,

Schelley Friday (Rob) and Gregg (Angie); five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

The Saturday February 2, 2013 Celebration of Life will be held at the Tigard Covenant Church, located at 11321 Southwest Naeve Street Tigard, Oregon 97224. The family extends a warm invitation to all of their friends. Your presence at this gathering in honor of Jerry would mean so very much to his wife Melva and their extended family.

The family appreciates the great care Jerry received at Hopewell House and suggest donations may be made to Hopewell House at 6171 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 97239-2649.