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Today's Featured Biography
Jerry Geller S'61
My three years at LAHS was cut a semester short when, at the last moment, I was given the opportunity to accelerate and graduate with the winter class where I knew no one. I'm very grateful to the planners of the reunion that both winter and summer graduating classes reunion is held simultaneously. I attended LACC for two years majoring in physics and engineering. Being an outdoorsy, adventurous sort of guy, and loving agriculture, I decided to go to Pierce College in Woodland Hills and switch my major to animal husbandry. After studying there for two months, I heard over the school intercom system that a Marine Corps Captain would be giving a short presentation about becoming a Marine pilot, with a short film showing the Blue Angels. Well, I was the only one who showed up, and the rest is history. I started pre-flight training at Pensacola on September 4th, 1963, and received my wings and commission on May 15, 1965. During that training I flew four different aircraft, carrier qualified twice, once in very harsh conditions 200 miles out in the Atlantic in 12 foot seas, and many other hairy events. I reported to El Toro where General Short assigned me to the only phantom squadron on the base, and received my fighter/attack MOS in October, 1966. Shortly thereafter, I received orders to report to Viet Nam, Chu Lai to be exact. On March 30, 1967 on my 46th mission, my aircraft was hit with heavy ground fire. Unable to pull out of my shallow dive, I crashed into a tree on the top of a ridge going 500 mph. I ejected out of the aircraft at nearly ground level and parachuted into a bamboo field. The windshield blast to my face prior to ejection had left me completely blinded, and I found myself stranded at the base of a hill that my plane had set to flames. I was very lucky to be picked within minutes up by a buddy flying an H-46 helicopter in the area. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross both for locating me and maneuvering the rescue ring down to me.
In time I regained a small amount of vision in both eyes; after various changes and operations over the years, I now maintain some temporal vision only in my left eye. The Marine Corps retired me as a Captain on Nov. 30, 1967, a week after my 24th birthday. My life has gone uphill since then. In December 1967 I was married for a brief 5 years during which time I had two beautiful boys, Scott and Andrew. During a visit to 40 acres I owned outside Blackfoot, Idaho in 1971, a local farmer and friend asked me to try to market his potato crop. Upon my return to L.A. I set up business as a broker and started to have success selling potatoes by the carload into the wholesale/re-packer market. I was a potato broker until 1977. In the meantime, with my usual desire to try something new, in 1974 I left L.A. and moved to the boonies on a dirt road, joined by a buddy from Jr. High who was also getting a divorce. I found 90 acres in the tiny town of Aguanga located 25 miles east of Temecula. Hence, my passion for farming started it's 30 year course. In 1975-76 Bob and I raised four acres of vegetables and melons. In 1980 I married my beautiful young wife, Janice, and in the same year planted three acres of grapes and four acres of eucalyptus. The grapes were grown organically and sold into San Diego in the beginning of the organic industry, while the eucalyptus is still thriving and is cut periodically for firewood. It’s a perfect heat source for the 4,000 sq. ft. house that I started building in 1989 with the help of my oldest son and 2 of my close friends and completed in 1993. Janice and I live there to this day after raising two more wonderful children, Marlon and Marissa.
In 2001, with the aid of a talking computer program, I studied and received my real estate license, driven by a desire to represent the 3,000 acres owned by my neighbors and myself to the County of Riverside for sale to the MSHCP (Multi Species Habitat Conservation Plan), including 1,250 acres which were owned by Jack Lemmon. It was a true pleasure working with his son-in-law and the family. As a result, a substantial portion of the area surrounding my home has been safely put into conservation, and I have the fortune to live in the middle of a nature and wildlife preserve, which can neither be hunted on or sold for development.
Our four grown children are doing extremely well and have graced us with four wonderful grandkids. I continue to manage several business partnerships and thrive on these ongoing ventures and relationships. The VA has helped me immensely with my vision loss and completely takes care of all my medical and non-medical needs, including voice accessibility with computers.
I love to swim, hike, boat, ski and travel. I’ve been across the U.S., Hawaii, South America, Europe, Ukraine and Australia. I’m ready for new adventures and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
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