Gerald Charles Morrone

Gerald Charles Morrone, 74, passed away suddenly on September 7, 2014, from a heart attack. Gerald was born in Dunkirk, NY, to the late Joseph and Rose Barth Morrone, owners of Morrone’s Grocery at 59 Franklin Ave. and members of Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Gerald grew up in Dunkirk, NY, and attended Dunkirk #3 Elementary School and Dunkirk Junior High and High School. Growing up in and around the grocery store was anything but dull! As a youth, he loved working in the family store, learning about the family business from his Uncle Matt and Aunt Rose. As a teenager, he took a job at the local Koch Brewery even though he wasn’t of legal age to drink. After graduating High School in 1958, he was accepted and attended Syracuse University in the fall of that year, where he was an active member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Early spring of 1962, Gerald invited a high school friend of his, Joann Pagano, to a Syracuse dance and without warning friends fell in love. In October of the next year, they were married with only eight weeks to plan the wedding! In the summer of 1963, with only $100 in his pocket, he and Phil King (his future brother-in-law at the time) moved to DC to begin a new life. Phil went on to marry Gerald’s younger sister, Geraldine, and they became the fabulous foursome. At the time, the two couples initially had apartments next door to one another, but in 1964, Gerald and Phil decided to go house hunting without their wives and bought houses next door to each other in Bowie, MD, all without the wives seeing the houses. Two years later in 1966, Michael, their first child, arrived, and in 1968, their daughter Kristin arrived. Gerald and his family lived in Bowie until 1978 when they moved to Annapolis where they resided until the death of his wife Joann in 1990. In 2005, he moved to Easton, MD. Gerald worked most of his life in computers and was a Senior Analyst. He began working at Melpar working on the electronics for the minuteman missile followed by NASA Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt and Sperry Univac. He spent many years working for the House of Representative Information Systems (HIS) and was part of the team that developed computerized voting for the congressmen. He also worked at Amtrak and then the Senate where he worked for the Sargent at Arms. In 1986, he took a position at MCI where he worked until he retired in 2003. He would tell you though that the highlight of his career came after retirement as he began the role of grandpa to his only grandson Benjamin, whom he adored. Gerald was a wonderfully gentle and caring man who touched the lives of so many people. He was passionate about family and enjoyed time spent with family and friends. He was committed to maintaining contacts both near and far and often made “Saturday” calls to everyone. He was a connoisseur of good food and wine. He had faith in God and went to church every week, and he enjoyed writing poems, sharing them with everyone he knew. He will be deeply missed. Services will be held Thursday, September 11, 2014, at 11:00 a.m. at Sts. Peter and Paul in Easton, MD, with a reception to follow. For those who would like to make a memorial contribution in lieu of flowers – please consider the American Cancer Society (www.m.cancer.org) or the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (www.lls.org) as they were very important charities to him.

Gerald Charles Morrone

June 5, 1940 - September 7, 2014