Gerard R. "Jerry" Lemieux

Gerard R. Lemieux “Jerry” was born on July 17, 1949, in Lewiston, Maine, to Omer and Anita Lemieux and grew up in a neighborhood called Little Canada where French Canadian was the first language. Jerry was in middle school before he learned the English language. As a boy growing up in Lewiston-Auburn he found his life-long love of drum corps with the Scarlet Cadets and later the Andrew’s Sabres playing bass baritone. And this being Maine, it meant street hockey in the summer and rink hockey in the winter. Jerry’s favorite position was goalie. He also found time to play baseball. He attended St. Peter and Paul Grade School and Edward Little High School. In 1967 Jerry enlisted in the USMC Reserve and did his recruit training at Parris Island, SC, and was stationed at Camp LeJeune, NC.

It was in 1969 while living and working in Portland, Maine and fresh out of the Marine Corps that he met and fell in love with a girl from Montana, Carol Nason, who was attending business college in Portland. They married in 1970. Jerry continued his service with the USMC Reserve as chief of motor transport. He worked for Ray Harmon Trucking as a fleet mechanic and later the Greater Portland Transit District as night leadman.

In 1975 when Carol received word that her dad had terminal cancer, they both decided without hesitation or question, to move to Helena to be with her family. It was in August of that year Jerry began his career with United Parcel Service. He started out as a mechanic at the Butte center. Nine months later UPS promoted him to a supervisor position in Missoula. In 1978 UPS transferred him to Kalispell as center manager and in 1981 to Havre. It was in Havre that daughters Julie and Jennifer were born. In 1988 UPS moved him back to Missoula to manage that center. UPS also sent him on temporary assignments to Chicago, Denver, Wyoming, and Alaska. Jerry retired in 2000. To keep busy after retirement he worked for Beach Transportation and volunteered at the Missoula Food Bank and the Humane Society of Western Montana.

He was an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Bruins, Griz football, and Gonzaga basketball. And it was when he moved to Helena in 1975 that he found a passion for coaching women’s fastpitch softball. He coached women’s teams in Kalispell, Havre, and youth/high school teams in Missoula.

Jerry had an amazing range of interests: beer and wine making, gourmet cooking, a trained wine connoisseur, woodworking, bow and rifle hunting, fly and ice fishing, building model cars, playing the banjo, telling stories that sometimes had a little extra embellishment, going to Broadway musicals, MCT productions, drum corps shows (most especially the DCIs), traveling and cruising, and birding. He collected baseball cards, coins, and stamps.

Jerry’s parents, his aunt Margaret Proulx and close friends Ted Hesse and Pat Toomey preceded him in death.

Surviving Jerry are his wife Carol, daughters Julie Taylor (Luke) Renton, Washington, and Jennifer Roberts (Sean), Florence, grandsons “my boys” Conor, Mason, and Nolan, sister Rita Adams, Florida, uncle Joe Proulx, cousins Julie McKinnon and David Proulx, Massachusetts, and many loving family members and friends.

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Drs. Jennifer Gibson-Snyder, Casey Kolendich, and Jocelyn Spoon for their years of taking diligent care of Jerry, as well as all the wonderful staff in St. Pat’s ER and Hospital, Partners in Home Care Hospice and at Missoula Rural Fire Station 1.

The Vigil is Friday, April 29, 7 pm at Blessed Trinity Catholic Community, 1475 Eaton St. The Funeral Mass is Saturday, April 30, 10:30 am. Luncheon follows. Burial is Monday, April 2, 12:30 pm, Old St. Mary’s Cemetery.

If you wish, donations may be made to Blessed Trinity Catholic Community, Humane Society of Western Montana, or Missoula Food Bank in Jerry’s memory.

The funeral mass will be live streamed at: