Helen Gerry

Helen Bergquist Gerry passed away peacefully on January 17th 2026.

Helen was born in La Grange, Illinois on April 27th 1935 and lived there with her mother, father and two younger brothers until 1943, when the family moved 200 miles south to Springfield. There, they lived on a small lake, and perhaps this gave rise to Helen’s love of water. She would go on to spend much of her life in lovely homes situated on lakes or on properties near the ocean.

In 1945, the family moved back north, to Sycamore, Illinois. Helen could fondly recall the square dances that were held at the local grange hall and the football bonfires that took place on the nights before a big game. In those years, she was active in the high school band and she somehow managed to be a cheerleader without missing a single game in four years!

When Helen was 17, the family took the decision to move to Van Nuys, California. One can only imagine how difficult it was for Helen to finish the remainder of her senior year at a new school. But it was also a time to make a choice about college, and Helen chose nearby Occidental. She began her studies in speech pathology, but later switched to elementary education, a decision that would lead her into a career as a much-loved teacher, a role she enjoyed for many, many years. At “Oxy”, Helen joined the Gamma Kappa Theta sorority and the “mixers” and parties, fraternity serenades and dances, all helped her to develop lifelong friendships and more. Indeed, in the spring of her sophomore year, Helen met Chuck Gerry, a tall, good looking senior. Within a matter of months and just before Chuck was drafted into the army, they were engaged. The couple would spend the next two years apart, while Chuck served as a radar operator in Japan. They were married on December 14th, 1957, barely a month after Chuck’s return to the U.S.

In 1969, Helen and Chuck moved the family (which now included three young children) from Southern California to New Jersey. Waterfront properties on the East Coast (from Cape Cod to Florida) would be home for many years, but Chuck and Helen never lost their yearning to return to the “West” and they purchased a home on Flathead Lake in Montana in 1989.

Over the next 30 years, the lake house over-flowed with visiting friends and an ever-expanding number of grandchildren (and great grandchildren) who gathered for family reunions on Flathead. And remarkably, despite the chaotic activity and seemingly endless visits to the supermarket, “Grammy Helen” remained, at all times, unflustered, loving and unflaggingly good-humored. She also found time to be actively involved with various fundraising projects that helped support charities that were precious to her.

Helen was a remarkable woman. To some, it may appear she led a modest life, but this perception is due, in large part, to the truth that Helen put aside many of her own ambitions, unselfishly placing the interests and needs of her husband and children above her own. She leaves behind a legacy of profound kindness and through her example, a beautiful illustration of what it means to feel deep compassion for others. Helen will be remembered too, for her strength, her energy and her persistent joyfulness.

The family will be gathering to celebrate her wonderful life on the lake that she so loved, and in the place that will forever remind us of her warm embrace and her tender welcome home.

Buffalo Hill Funeral Home caring for the family.