Following is the obituary for GLENN GERRY, submitted for the family by the Harding Funeral Home.

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Glenn Gerry, formerly of Westport, passed away March 18, 2023, after a long illness. He was predeceased by his wife of 63 years, Louise (Weezie), in 2011.

Glenn was born in Providence, R.I., on March 2, 1930, to Josephine Towne and Willis H. Gerry. He moved to Greens Farms in 1946 with his mother, siblings and step-father, George E. Clifford. He graduated from Staples High School in 1947 and went on to two semesters at Yale University, a one-year tour of duty in the Navy where he spent the majority of that time painting the USS Coral Sea in Chesapeake Bay, and after his Naval service he attended UConn in Storrs for a semester before moving back to Westport to work as a carpenter to support his growing family.

Glenn never gave up on achieving a higher education. He attended the University of Bridgeport at night until he finally graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1970. He worked at the Burndy Corp. and Pitney-Bowes in that capacity for many years before becoming a quality  control engineer and traveling throughout the U.S. and Mexico until he branched out to freelance contracting for several years before retiring.

Glenn had a great love of music. He had a wonderful, clear tenor voice he liked to share with others. He was a longtime member of the Greens Farms Church choir. He also filled in at the Unitarian Church under the direction of Jeanne Kimball as well as singing with the Westport Madrigal Singers for many years.

Known as a constant teacher of all things, Glenn was the person his grandchildren went to with math and science homework. All his children learned to care for a car at an early age. He taught us how to paint a house, bait a hook, identify constellations, even ice skate on our little pond behind our Morningside Drive house, which Glenn built with family help in 1955.

Glenn was also known as a “baby whisperer” among his family. His own children, then grandchildren, he was the go-to guy. He always had an aura of peace and safety around him. Somehow he was able to impart that peace to a squalling infant.

Along the same vein, he opened his house over many decades to his sister, friends of his children and friends of grandchildren as a safe house while they contemplated their next life move. Even, the place to be on a Friday for “folk music” singalongs back in the ’60s.

Most of all, Glenn should be remembered for his early strikes at social injustice. While working at the Burndy Corp. during the ’60s he befriended a man of color and a recently emigrated German man. They were having trouble fitting in. He hosted those men and their families to dinner at our house. Inclusion, Glenn always insisted on inclusion of everyone. Always.

Glenn will be missed by all who knew his quiet, yet always accepting self. His ability to commune without words, just sitting together. His peculiar way of “taking the backroads” rather than the highway. And always, his profound love for his wife, Weezie. 

They are together again in Heaven. That’s all that matters.

Glenn is survived by his children, Michael Gerry of Riverside, Calif., Stephen Gerry of Redding Ridge, Judith Platt of Randleman, N.C. and Evelyn Gerry Eastman of Norway, Maine; three siblings: George (Cliff) Clifford of Hendersonville, N.C., Connie Testani of Shelton and Linda M. Clifford of Nokomis, Fla.; seven grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and a great, great-grandchild, as well as a nephew and three nieces.

The Harding Funeral Home in Westport is assisting the family with the arrangements. To leave a condolence online for the family visit www.hardingfuneral.com. Services for Mr. Gerry will be announced at a later date.