Gerald Gilbert Haberland (Jerry) died in his home, on September 19, 2011. He was born in Bay City, MI, on May 3, 1931, the third of the six children of Oscar and Frieda Haberland. When he was a year old he had polio, and the results of that disease shaped the rest of his life. It gave him scoliosis and osteomyelitis, which landed him in a hospital for a significant part of every year of his youth. Those stays expanded his view of the world and his possibilities in it, and brought the realization that physical problems are something to be dealt with and then ignored. The osteomyelitis led to a foot amputation when he was sixteen. After graduation from high school and a year at the local community college he took a job at Dow Corning Corporation, where he remained for the rest of his working career. There was a hiatus in the late 1950s, when with the help of Dow Corning, he lived in Pittsburgh, PA, worked at Mellon Institute, earned his B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, met and married Nicki. Return to Michigan and corporate Dow Corning included building a home and increasing the family by two daughters, Sheila and Debra. After retiring from Dow Corning, Jerry and Nicki spent seven years traveling the continental United States. When it was time to settle again, they chose Kerrville TX, and here they have remained.
Jerry is survived by his wife, Nicki; his daughters and their spouses, Sheila and Robert, Debra and David; sisters Lorna and Kay; and numerous other friends and relatives. His optimistic spirit will be missed.
A memorial service for Jerry Haberland will be held at 2:00 p.m., Sunday, October 9, 2011, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kerrville, 213 Loma Vista Drive, Kerrville.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kerrville or to the religious institution of your choice.
