Jerry Moeller passed away on July 8, 2021. He was a proud member and former President of the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Club 13, for close to 30 years.
Gerald Herbert Moeller, 97, of Lanier Village Estates, Gainesville, Georgia passed away on July 8, 2021.
Jerry was born to Rev. Herbert F. and Edna A. Moeller in University City, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, Mo. on October 14, 1923.
Jerry graduated from Roosevelt High School in St. Louis in June, 1941. He worked for the Pet Milk Company loading and unloading cases of evaporated milk during the summer of 1941 with a firm resolve to go to college that fall. So it happened that Jerry was a college freshman when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He soon joined the Navy V-12 officer-training program and was called up in July 1943, graduating as an Ensign on June 8, 1944 - two days after the Normandy landings. He received orders to report to a Landing Craft Tank in New Guinea. By September he was the executive officer and regularly participating in small landings along the north shore of that island. Then as Gen MacArthur returned to the Philippines, he and his crew made the ten-day trip to the island of Leyte – surviving kamikaze attacks by the Japanese. A few weeks later the ship was needed in Manila where they supplied the combat troops with food and munitions.
After the surrender, Jerry was ordered to occupation duty in Japan. A year later, in September 1946 he returned to St. Louis in college, where he met the love of his life, Laura Lee Luedde, who became his wife in June 1949.
A year later, Jerry again received orders to report for duty as the USA went into the Korean War. This time Lee went with him as he reported to the Attack Transport, USS Chilton at Norfolk, Virginia. While the ship was stationed in Naples, Italy, Lee was able to join him for a glorious three months. Shortly after they returned from Italy, their son, Dereck John Moeller was born back in Norfolk and Jerry was demobilized. In the following four years, they had two daughters: Dori Lee and Merry Cay.
The family returned to St. Louis and Jerry began teaching in a reading clinic. He became an elementary school principal, a district supervisor of beginning teachers, and the assistant to the superintendent. He completed his Ed.D at Washington University in 1962. Following service as the Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Support Services, Jerry accepted the job of Deputy Superintendent for Instruction in the Kansas City School District.
After retirement from education and from the naval reserve, Jerry assisted the Naval Sea Cadet program and served on the national Navy League Board of Directors and the national Sea Cadet Board of Directors. He spent many hours on family genealogy and visited Europe many times in search of both his and Lee’s families.
Jerry was president of the Kansas City Rotary Club as well as president of the Kansas City Navy League.
In 2007, Jerry and Lee moved to Georgia to be near daughter, Cay Moeller Drew and her family who lived in Big Canoe, Ga. They moved to Lanier Village Estates in the summer of 2008. Settling in apt #2128, the Moellers made new friends at the village.
Jerry is survived by his three children, “Deke” Dereck John Moeller, his wife, Anna, and their child, Kamila, and Bret and Julia; Dori Lovegren, Deannah, her daughter; and Cay Drew, her husband, John, and sons: Ben and Jeff.