GERALD LEE STURGEON

1930 - 2019

GERALD LEE STURGEON, 88, of Huntington, was born May 16, 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression in a small log cabin in rural West Virginia at the base of a road that no longer exists. He would spend many summers on that old share cropper farm off Rock Fork Road in the southernmost tip of Mason County, known today as Upland Ashton. Gerald would join his father, Raymond, and mother, Betsy, in Altizer, W.Va., where he spent most of his youth. He graduated from Huntington East High School and joined the Air Force in 1947, where he was a plane mechanic working on British Spitfire engines and very early jet engines. He toured Italy, France, post-war Germany, swam the Mediterranean and rode an Indian motorcycle through the war-torn streets of West Berlin. Upon returning to the States in 1949, he fell in love with Hazel Christene Lusher and married in 1950. Gerald sold Electrolux vacuums, Kitchen Kraft pots and pans and worked at Sylvania in Huntington, but finally found what he loved to do in the optical science field of Opticianry. He began grinding lenses at Ross Burks Optical beside Jim's Spaghetti Restaurant. He also worked six years in Pikeville, Ky., and then in 1964 moved his family to Hollywood, Calif. Gerald, Christene and sons, Colan and Mark, would live in Torrance, Calif., for two and a half years before the birth of their baby girl, Toni, which would beckon their return home to West Virginia. Upon their return, they settled into the Village of Barboursville where Gerald opened Village Optical in 1967. Then in 1977 Sturgeon's Optical was opened in Huntington and finally the current location in 1986. Gerald Lee Sturgeon passed through the gates of Heaven on Friday, February 1, 2019, having left a great legacy. Generations of children around the Tri-State area received their first eyeglasses and contact lenses from our father, and stories number into the thousands. He will be remembered for being a great father and husband, kind friend, a gentle man, a Barboursville Lion and a good and faithful Christian servant. He was G-man and popy-son, Geralies, Geri, Pawpaw, Grandpa, Mr. S., dad and daddy. He was our rock. Rest in peace, Dad - go fly your airplane, lay up that perfect chip shot just four feet from the flag and run through the fields of lilies hand in hand with Mom. Gerald was preceded in death by his loving wife, Christene; siblings, Harold Sturgeon (Jewell), Ruth Ann Moore (Joe), Betty Lou Black (Eugene); and a granddaughter, Kristen Hope Kuhn. We'll see you again very soon. Saying a very special goodbye are your children, Colan (Heather), Mark (Paula) and Toni (Greg Jones); grandchildren, Adam, Joshua, Alyssa, Amber, Treven, Tylar, Jenna and Jaycee Sturgeon, Madison Jones and Emily Kuhn; eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson; your surviving siblings, John, Robert, Patricia, Tom, Randal, Sandra, Donald and Joyce Sturgeon; and a host of loving nieces, nephews, friends and faithful patients. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, February 4, 2019, at the Wallace Funeral Home, Barboursville. Graveside services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Tuesday, February 5, 2019, at Ridgelawn Memorial Park, Huntington, by Dr. David Lemming. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.timeformemory.com/wallace. The procession will leave the funeral home at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.