Gerald J. Stacy

It seems fitting that Gerry was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1940 because at the close of every day he offered a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the wonderful life he had been given. Whether it was pitching two hours of batting practice for his son Chad’s little league team or attending his son Gerry’s orchestra concerts or high school musicals, or putting up the tent on family camping trips, Gerry loved being an active partner in raising their sons with his wife Ruth Ann who had become his June bride in a big Polish wedding in 1968.

Gerry was born in Chicago and grew up on Albany Avenue in the Logan Square neighborhood, walking each morning with his brothers to school at St. Francis Xavier parish and to church on Sundays. He remembered that walk becoming more complicated when, as he said, “they ran the interstate through my aunt’s backyard.” A studious, bookish boy, he contracted scarlet fever when he was seven and spent a year recovering in the La Rabida Sanitarium on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Shortly after his convalescence, the family moved out of Chicago to the far north suburb of Venetian Village where Gerry spent his teenage years attending the Salvatorian Seminary at St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. After successfully convincing his parents that he would make a rotten priest, he graduated from Grayslake High School in the late 1950’s.

Gerry loved books and reading; his entire professional life was spent around universities. After earning a B.A. Degree in English (St. Procopius College, 1963) and an M.A. Degree in English literature (Purdue University, 1965), Gerry began his teaching career as an instructor at Western Illinois University in 1965. In 1969 he matriculated at Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he both taught and earned a Ph.D. in English Renaissance Literature in 1972. Following graduation, Gerry taught on the faculties at Mary Manse College in Ohio, Illinois Benedictine College in suburban Chicago, and Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

In 1983, Gerry moved from the faculty into full-time university administration, becoming the Associate Dean for Research in the graduate school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). He succeeded wildly in that position, establishing close relationships with federal granting agencies in Washington DC and increasing research funding to the university by more than 600% in just under seven years, in recognition of which he received the university’s distinguished service award.

In 1990, Gerry and Ruth Ann moved to Ellensburg where he assumed the position of Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Central Washington University. While he continued to be a successful administrator, his heart remained in the classroom. He received a faculty appointment as Professor of English and took the time each year to teach one to two classes in the English Department and the Douglas Honors College, often on his beloved Shakespeare. In 1996, Gerry moved over fulltime to the English Department where he taught and served as coordinator of the department’s graduate program and the university’s humanities program, and in 2007, he was awarded the Distinguished University Professor in Teaching. Gerry became Professor Emeritus in 2009 after 44 years in the classroom but continued to teach part time for many years thereafter, keeping his coveted office in the old Language and Literature building.

While well known by many alumni and faculty colleagues at CWU, for many of the residents of Ellensburg, Gerry is probably best known for his biweekly humor column, The Family Fracas, that was published in the Ellensburg Daily Record from 1990 through 1994, or perhaps for his regular presence as a lector at Grace Church.

Quick with a laugh and a smile, Gerry died as he lived: peacefully, at home, with his wife close by. He was preceded in death by his parents Gerald John (1911-1983) and Irene T. Stacy (née Widuck, 1912-2004) and by his brother John Frances Stacy (1942-2005), formerly of Downers Grove, Illinois. He is survived by his brother Tom Stacy from Bristol, Wisconsin; his beloved wife of 56 years, Ruth Ann Stacy (née Regeski), and by their two sons: Gerald Moose Stacy who lives with his husband, Travis Stacy Moose, in Chicago; and Chad John Stacy, who lives with his wife, Sarah Anne, in Los Olivos, California. Chad and Sarah have four children, Carter Gerald, Quinn Myers, Arden Reaigh, and Marian Mae.

A funeral service will be held at Grace Episcopal Church, 1201 N. B Street, Ellensburg on Friday, August 9 at 1:00 pm. For those unable to attend the service in person, a copy of Gerry's service bulletin is included on this online obituary and you can also watch a livestream of the service here.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Central Washington University Foundation, English Department Scholarship Endowment.