Gerard "Jerry" Marder

Our beloved father, grandpapa, great grandfather, uncle, dear friend and devoted husband, Jerry Marder, passed away on January 7, 2014, days shy of his 90th birthday.

Jerry was born in Brooklyn, NY. Jan. 20, 1924, the son of Ida and Frank Marder, and younger brother to Julienne Marder Winner.
There he attended Erasmus High. He told many tales about his childhood in NY and was fortunate to live near his many cousins, aunts and uncles whom he loved dearly and to whom he remained close.

The family moved to Asheville in 1939 when Ecusta paper company relocated operations to North Carolina. Jerry graduated from Lee Edwards High School and went on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There he was selected to join the Naval ROTC and became a member of Tau Epsi-lon Phi Fraternity.

During WWII he left UNC to begin active duty in the US Navy as an Ensign. He was executive officer and later commanding officer of amphibious ship USS LCI-L 758 in the South Pacific, Philippines, and China, participating in five invasions. He was very proud of his tour in the US Navy and spoke of it the rest of his life.

Once decommissioned, his ship was converted to a tour vessel by the Circle Line Company and put into decades of service in the Hudson River view-ing Manhattan. The ship was recently retired and currently being converted to a museum commemorating its proud history. Jerry, along with his wife, enjoyed the great honor of being brought to NY last spring by Circle Line Tours so they could record every memory, of which there were many.

Captain Jerry loved the many challenges of navigation, using a sextant and the stars, all which contributed to his later love of sailing on Lake Norman, the Chesapeake Bay, the Florida Keys and the Caribbean. After the war, Jerry returned to Chapel Hill and graduated with the class of '44 in 1947, and from Duke Medical School in 1952. He returned to active military duty as a medical officer before returning to Duke for pediatric training.

Dr. Jerry started his pediatric practice in Gastonia in 1956 with his medical school classmate Robert Chambers. Fredrick Norcross and William Silk-stone later joined the practice. They were assisted by many wonderful nursing and office staff.

Jerry retired from full-time practice in 1989 and continued to work part-time around the country until 2000. He was a Fellow in the American Acad-emy of Pediatrics; a member of the NC Pediatric Society, serving as president; was Chief of Staff at Gaston Memorial Hospital; and president of the Gas-ton Medical Society. He was a founding member of Holy Angels in Belmont and served as its first physician. Recently, he was recognized by the Rotary Club of Gastonia as a Paul Harris Fellow.

Jerry was a member of Temple Emanuel in Gastonia and Beth HaTephila in Asheville before moving to Burlington in 2012.
Jerry was married in 1949 to Naomi Cooley. They had three children, Jeffrey Marder (Sunrise, FL), Tony Marder and wife Marisa (Gastonia), and Vicki Marder and husband Christopher Austin (Asheville). In 2000 he married Joan Timson Blaetz. In addition to his children, he is survived by step-children David Blaetz and wife Mary., Robin Blaetz and husband Cosmas Demetriou, Peter Blaetz and wife Patty, D. Pierson Blaetz and wife Shannon Fry. Addi-tionally, there are grandchildren Brandy Vance and husband Lex, Ashley Bowman and husband Cory, Russell Marder, Alexandra Austin, Elyse Marder and David Marder; and from the Blaetz family, Taylor, Evan, Gordon, Meredith, Zachary, Jarryd, and Isadora. He is also survived by great-grandson Dru Vance.

A funeral will be held graveside at the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville Thursday at 3 p.m. Morris Funeral Home will provide a service conducted by Rabbi Batsheva Meiri.

If you would like to make a contribution in Jerry's honor, please consider the following: The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Suite 102, 205 Regency Executive Park Drive, Charlotte, NC 28217. Holy Angels, Inc., P.O. Box 710 Belmont, NC 28012. Temple Emanuel, 320 S. South Street, Gas-tonia 28052.

He will be missed.
www.morrisfamilyfuneralhome.com.