Gerald "Jerry" Erlenbach

1940 - 2026

Gerald "Jerry" Erlenbach
11/29/1940 - 01/04/2026
Gerald "Jerry" Erlenbach was born in Midvale, Utah, to Adam John Erlenbach and Olga Jessie (Susie) Blatnick. His Utah Jordan High School accomplishments were both academic (Honor Roll, Athletic, lettering in 3 sports, baseball, co-captain of the basketball and football teams and Student Body President. He was awarded three college scholarships: University of Utah, Kennecott Copper Co. and Columbia College in New York City. His decision to accept the Columbia scholarship, even though he had never visited the campus, changed the trajectory of his future.
At Columbia, he continued his participation in academic and athletic life. He played basketball ,and loved baseball. In 1963, he was chosen as a member of the All Ivy League Baseball Team, participated in the Undergraduate Athletic Council, was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and majored in Political Science. As a junior, he met Joyce, a junior at Barnard College, and a native New Yorker. Their commitment to each other was instantaneous and lasted for 63 years.
After graduation, he fulfilled his Military commitment, joined the Navy, completed OCS at Newport, R.I., and was the engineering officer on two destroyers. His home port was Norfolk, Va.
He and Joyce married in 1964. After completing his service, they made the next decision which again changed the course of their life together. Though neither one of them had ever been to San Francisco, they decided to relocate. Two days after arriving, he interviewed for a position at Levi Strauss & Co. January 1967 was the beginning of his 31 year career with a company whose culture reflected his beliefs in product quality, integrity and above all, respect and care for all employees. His progress was again marked with travel and promotion, and he grew as the company grew. Relocated to Kentucky as HR Manager, next assignment was to Memphis, Tenn., as Human Resource Advisor, and where Kristin, our first daughter was born. He finally found home in San Francisco as the Director of Industrial Relations, where our second daughter, Kim, was born. He was responsible for 35 U.S. facilities, dealing with three different unions employing over 20,000 employees. After 31 years he retired. As Robert Hass wrote in a farewell letter, "just know that you made a BIG difference." Retirement gave us "our" years. We proudly spent time with our six grandchildren, participating in their every day lives, including sports, birthdays, even pick up days at school etc. Travel was for pleasure. We joined the Marin Country Club, where Jerry rekindled his love for golf. Ever the competitor, he participated in tournaments, hit two holes-in-one, one of which was 313 yards at Indian Valley Golf Course!
The last few years have been challenging. Health issues curtailed golf, but not his love for the 49ers, games with the grands, golf on tv and celebrating all those birthdays with chocolate cake! He will forever be missed and loved by Kristin (Chris, Megan, Leah and Jack) and Kim (Andy, Abby, Wyatt and Jake). He was larger than life, and my best friend, and I made the best decision of my life when he asked me to marry him six weeks after we started dating.