Mechanicsburg Area High School
Alumni Association
Hall of Fame
A product of Grantham, PA, Jerry graduated from MHS in
1959. After high school, he served in the U.S. Navy where
he learned the electrical trade, then secured a job with
Heim Electric in Harrisburg, but he gave up his position
with that company to move to Montana for a short time
where he pursued his interest in hunting Big Horn Sheep.
He shot his first sheep in 1977 and began his quest for the
Ovis World Slam, a major achievement in which a hunter
takes twelve different species or subspecies of world sheep.
Few hunters have ever accomplished the Ovis World Slam.
In order to accomplish this lofty goal, Jerry moved to
Alaska where he worked on the Alaskan pipeline, and in his
spare time pursued and shot seven more Dall sheep. Jerry’s
quest for the Ovis took him to Mongolia, Nepal, Dagestan,
Tajikistan, Russia, Spain, Tibet and Iran to bag exotic
species of sheep. After Jerry moved from Alaska to British
Columbia, Canada, where he purchased a 160 acre spread
and built a new house himself, he continued to hunt for
goats, stone sheep, and ibex, both locally and abroad. In
addition to the exciting life Jerry led as a sportsman, his
work experiences took him to faraway places. Toward the
end of Jerry’s work career, he was employed on oil rigs in
the Caspian and South China Seas.
Most of the animals Jerry bagged were mounted and
preserved life-size, and many of them have since been
donated to the Oakes Natural History Museum at Messiah
College, founded in 2003. Jerry’s donation is significant,
not just due to the value of the trophies, but when one
considers that he paid all the transportation, license and
mounting costs out of his own pocket, this generous act
of philanthropy becomes even greater. Jerry has given the
museum one of the best public displays of wild sheep and
wild goats anywhere, and the animals have been arranged
by the relative elevations at which they lived. In addition,
moose, Kodiak Island brown bear, and a wolverine are
among other trophy mounts given to the museum by Jerry.
Thanks in large part to his gift, the museum’s display has
become a valuable teaching tool for many school groups.
Jerry is recognized as a true world class sportsman by
those who have accompanied him on hunts and those who
have listened to his stories about his climbs and stalks of
wild animals. While his expertise as a sportsman for several
decades is recognized world-wide, Jerry is also deserving of
the title “philanthropist” for his unselfish contribution of
mounted animals to the Oakes Museum, sharing them with
future generations and inspiring interest in natural history.
Jerry resides in Shoup, Idaho with his wife, Nancy.
He has two daughters. Beth lives in Washington and has
three children, and Michelle lives in Anchorage, Alaska
and has one child.
