Gerald Alderson Obituary

Born: February 7, 1938 in Arizona, Died: February 11, 2015 in Colorado Springs.

Gerald is survived by his wife Ellen Lucile Alderson, daughter and her family Rachel and Corey Rackler and their daughter Annie Bay Rackler and his niece Penny Alderson.

Born to Ray and Rachel Alderson he spent his youth in Washington state and California. He had one brother Don and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.

Gerald was a graduate of Loma Linda School of Dentistry and School of Medicine. Upon completion of an internship at Duke University he finished his pathology residency at Harbor General Hospital in California. He fulfilled his military obligation at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington D.C. as the only medical corps officer to ever serve in the Dental and Oral division, an assignment which he greatly enjoyed, extending his service to 4 years there.

His professional career was spent at the Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas where he eventually became the head of the pathology department at the VA and ran the Virology and Microbiology Departments at the Bexar County Hospital, teaching in both the medical and dental schools for a time.

He loved fly fishing, big band music, baseball, model railroading and was a great admirer of Winston Churchill, collecting and reading every book by and about him. He also loved history, especially W.W.II and visiting the Arizona memorial and museum in Hawaii with his family was a special occasion for him last year as he and his parents and brother were living in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After retiring from medicine in 2009 he joined his wife in Black Forest, Colorado until his passing.

Services will be private for family only at Swan Law Mortuary.