In Memoriam 1992-1997/Gerald “Jerry” Boisclair
| In Memoriam 1992-1997 Gerald “Jerry” Boisclair |
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GERALD "JERRY" BOISCLAIR[edit]
1939-1997
Gerald "Jerry" Boisclair passed away in Escondido, California, on January 23, 1997. Born in 1939, Jerry declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh in 1971. He served on several California Assemblies and settled as a homefront pioneer in the San Diego area.
In May 1975 he and his wife, Patty, pioneered to Chile and then in 1982 to Botswana. They returned to the United States in November 1983 but continued to work toward another pioneering post. By 1990 they had decided to pioneer to what was then Czechoslovakia. Jerry served on its first National Spiritual Assembly as well as the first Local Assemblies of Kosice and Medzev.
Jerry and Patty were the first pioneers in eastern Slovakia and the "spiritual parents" or "grandparents" of almost all those who accepted the Faith in that region. They
Gerald "Jerry" Boisclair[edit]
were especially successful in their work with the Romany people. Their plans to stay in Slovakia indefinitely were unexpectedly changed when they were forced to return to the United States by Patty's declining health. Patty passed away, and Jerry followed her, dying less than a year later after suffering two heart attacks. Jerry was buried on the Pala Indian Reservation in California where he had lived for years and had served as tribal chairman before pioneering to Eastern Europe. On February 4, 1997, the condolences of the Universal House of Justice were conveyed by its Department of the Secretariat:
The Universal House of Justice... was saddened to learn the news of the recent passing of Mr. Jerry Boisclair seven months after that of his wife, Mrs. Patty Boisclair. The House of Justice will offer ardent prayers in the Holy Shrines for the progress of their souls in the Abhá Kingdom.
Adapted from obituaries appearing in The American Bahá’í