Jerome A. "Jerry" Leer

1919 - 2019

Leer, Jerome "Jerry" A. Jerome "Jerry" A. Leer died June 3, 2019, at the age of 99. A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for 37 years, Jerry was beloved and admired by countless former students and faculty members. Born in Milwaukee on Oct. 15, 1919, he was the son of Austrian immigrants Anton Leer and Frances (Kodytek) Leer. Jerry was a World War II veteran, enlisting in the U.S. Army shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from UW-Madison, where he majored in accounting and minored in German and French. He served in the military for three and a half years, spending 25 months in the European Theater of Operations as a U.S. Army Master Sergeant. Originally assigned to ordnance, he was moved to counter-intelligence due to his knowledge of German and French. Jerry worked on the Nuremberg trials, making sure the translations were correct. Upon his return to Milwaukee in 1946, he joined the UW Division of Commerce to teach accounting and statistics. He attended summer school at Northwestern University and earned his MBA (magna cum laude) as well as his CPA in 1949. Jerry was one of two founding faculty members in the accounting program when UW-Milwaukee opened in 1956. Leer was a pioneer faculty member. In the 1970s, he was one of the first to use closed-circuit TV to instruct more than 1,000 students in 33 sections of one class. He designed the Master of Science taxation program at the Lubar School of Business, making it the most highly concentrated tax program in the country. He co-authored Advanced Accounting, which is still a leading textbook today, with two other faculty members: William Taylor and Paul Fischer. Fischer was also a former student of Leer's. Jerry Leer made an indelible impression on the students he taught at UWM. Described as "demanding," "legendary," and "a rock star," Leer was known for his high expectations and the way he encouraged his students to excel. Many of his students went on to become CEOs, comptrollers, and partners of major accounting firms. When Leer retired in 1983, his former student and teaching assistant Peter Tellier established the Jerry Leer/In Memory of Roy H. Tellier Sr. Scholarship in honor of Jerry and Peter's father, Roy. Peter Tellier encouraged many of Leer's former students to support the fund, raising more than $1 million for full-tuition scholarships since the fund was created. The largest scholarship created in honor of a faculty member at UWM, it has supported nearly 200 students in the past 36 years. Jerry Leer loved to travel and spent his vacations teaching English to children in Cuernavaca, Mexico. His is survived by his nephew Dennis Doyle of Tucson, Arizona; nieces Patricia Geiser of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, and Bette Glover of Tucson, Arizona; and numerous great nieces and nephews in whom he instilled the value of hard work, the importance of education, and the obligation to help those less fortunate. A memorial service will be held at UW-Milwaukee in the fall. Memorial gifts should be made to the UWM Foundation for the Jerry Leer/In Memory of Roy H. Tellier Sr. Scholarship, 1440 East North Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202.