Gerald Bullock

1943 - 2022

Gerald Lynn Bullock The Woodlands Gerald Lynn Bullock, M.D., J.D. of The Woodlands, Texas, passed away Sunday morning, November 13, 2022, in the comfort of his own home, surrounded by his wife and children, after a long and hard-fought battle with Lewy Body Dementia. He was 79 years old. Known as Jerry by friends and family, he was born in Denison, Texas on April 28, 1943. With his extraordinary work ethic, grit, and sheer determination to better himself, he worked two and three jobs at a time from the age of twelve on, saving money to put himself through college (the first of his family to attend) and then through medical school. He met his soulmate, best friend and wife of 60 years, Chloe D. Hall, at Parkside Baptist Church in Denison as a young teen, and the two of them forged their lives together, first completing his medical training and residency, then having three children, and eventually, Chloe becoming a registered nurse, which enabled her to work in his private medical office alongside him. Jerry graduated from Arlington College, then from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston with his M.D. in 1969. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in 1973, then served at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, being honorably discharged as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1978. He returned to his hometown of Denison where he opened his private practice, and he worked tirelessly as a women's advocate, helping to open the area's first emergency shelter for women and families of domestic abuse. The Grayson Crisis Center is still in existence today, one of only 73 in the state of Texas. In 1987, Dr. Bullock settled in The Woodlands where he ran his private practice for nearly thirty years; was on the UTMB faculty where he worked at outlying satellite clinics; and was faculty of the University of Texas Health Science Center teaching obstetrics to residents of the Conroe Family Medicine Residency Program. The last ten years of his practice, until retiring in 2015, he worked alongside his youngest daughter, Dr. Emily Bullock, who followed in his footsteps and became his partner in practicing obstetrics and gynecology. A voracious learner and tireless student, Dr. Bullock even embarked on a law degree, juggling school and his medical practice, and passed the bar on his first try at the age of fifty-one. His combination of medical and law degrees allowed him to work in utilization review and case management at the Memorial Hermann Hospital system, as well as in consulting and expert witness testimony. Medicine was not just his job or career; it truly was his calling. It was why he was put on this earth for nearly eight decades. He has left behind a legacy of tens of thousands of babies he ushered earthside and their grateful mothers, into whose arms he placed them, as well as the countless women he has cared for. Each woman, not a room number or a diagnosis, but a name. Each patient a wife and daughter, sister and mother, a coworker and friend. And he healed not just his patients but all those whose paths he crossed each and every day, affecting them with his empathy, compassion, listening ear, gentle presence and dry humor. Because he knew that sometimes laughter was the best medicine. And that sometimes a dad joke was the funniest joke of all. When he wasn't at the hospital delivering babies, operating, and counseling, Jerry was an artist-completing elaborate woodcarvings and embroidering wall hangings and Christmas stockings for family members-and an author, publishing a fiction novel about domestic abuse. He loved tinkering in his garage, fixing all broken things, watching the Astros, pruning trees and planting flowers, sitting in the kitchen or on his back porch with Chloe watching the birds and squirrels, and spending time with his most favorite people-his eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren, who called him Big Daddy. Jerry is survived by his wife, Chloe, their children Amy (and husband Burke) Bradley of Missouri City, Russell (and wife Patty) Bullock of The Woodlands, and Emily Bullock (and husband Armando Sotelo) of The Woodlands, eight grandchildren Quinn Menjivar (and husband German), Keavy Bradley, Declan Bradley, Roarke Bradley, Kenzie Bullock, Chloe Sotelo, Andrew Sotelo, and Madison Sotelo, great grandchildren Halen and Willa Menjivar, as well as many nieces and nephews. He will be missed by more people than can be quantified. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the Montgomery County Women's Center in Conroe, Texas.