Deacon Gerry was born and raised in rural northeast Ohio. He became a paramedic and worked for a year in Cleveland, after which time he was hired as a firefighter/paramedic in the Akron area. In addition to his normal duties, he was a member of the hazardous materials team and was a medic for the police department’s SWAT unit. In 2004, he and his wife, Sandy, decided to move to Florida. Deacon Gerry’s road to diaconate was a long one. Although baptized as a Roman Catholic, he did not receive the sacraments of confirmation and communion until he went through RCIA as an adult. After moving to Florida, he went to the diaconate ordination of a friend, which led him to consider the permanent diaconate. He was then surprised one morning when his pastor, Fr. Thomas Cauley, stopped him on the way out of Mass to ask him to think about diaconate. Those two events led him to apply for the diaconate program in the Diocese of Palm Beach.