Jerold “Jerry” Schultz

Jerold “Jerry” Schultz passed away, continuing his journey heavenward, on October 20, 2018. Born in 1935 in San Francisco, he was the beloved husband of Peggy, to whom he was married for 58 years. He was the dear brother of Larry, proud dad of Carrie (Rob), Tim (Nanette), Peter (Cara), and Anna (Mark), proud grandpa/opa to Megan and Jamie Deaton, and Carter Schultz, and proud step-grandpa to Emily Haraldsson (Per) and Nicholas Dracon (Lauren).

Besides his family, his several worlds included a life-long career with a joint appointment in chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Delaware, where he was the C. Ernest Birchenall Professor of Chemical Engineering. He authored or co-edited six books and over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He received two Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Awards, a Kliment Ohridski Medal from Bulgaria for his work in academic exchanges with this then-iron curtain country, and a Fulbright Fellowship. He was also a fellow in the American Physical Society and served for many years as an associate editor of Macromolecules.

Another of his treasured worlds was bluegrass music. For the past thirty years, he found joy in picking the banjo. Maybe there are one or two Newarkers who haven’t heard one of his banjo jokes, but his family doubts it. He established the bluegrass jam that met weekly and then monthly at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church in Newark. He welcomed people of a broad range of musical abilities; he was thrilled that several local bluegrass groups got their start in the St. Thomas jams. His bluegrass group, Stained Grass, livened up many church services for several years.

As a classical flutist, Jerry was one of the original members of the Newark Symphony Orchestra. He played with NSO from its founding in 1966 until about 2012. Being the only rooster in the flute chicks group at Osher Lifelong Learning gave still more color to his life.

An inveterate bird lover, Jerry fed suet and sunflower seeds to his local bird friends until shortly before his passing. He experienced great peace in paddling the kayak he made and in hiking in any handy woods or rustic paths.

He found those woods and paths in his extensive travels around the world with his family. His epic adventures included two separate year-long sabbaticals in Germany, one sabbatical in Pune, India, and several stints in Beijing. As a young man he hitchhiked multiple times across the country and took his family on cross-country camping trips, including a drive with the entire family to Acapulco, Mexico. In his later years, Jerry and family members enjoyed a pig roast at a luau in Kauai, narrow-boated in Wales, shot the breeze with locals in Tangier and Smith Islands, salt-water fished in the Atlantic, relaxed in the sun on Lake Cumberland, and hung out with turtles on the Galapagos Islands.

Every noon for about 50 years he would lace up his basketball shoes for the daily pick-up game at the University gym. In fact, he was one of the founders of that game. At Cal Berkeley he played in the marching band. Cal is also where he met his beloved Peggy.

The son of a Jewish mother (Florence) and Catholic father (Ernest), Jerry decided as a child to attend an Episcopal Church in his neighborhood. He found a sturdy relationship with God in this denomination. He served several terms on the Vestry and in various other capacities at the old St. Matthew’s in Wilmington, and then at St. Thomas’s in Newark.

Jerry quietly and selflessly served others. He volunteered at the cold weather shelter at his church and he welcomed people at the Empowerment Center. And he was quick to offer a word of encouragement if someone was having a hard day.

The world will need to kind of shuffle and re-sort itself, but we know that Jerry’s wry humor, his banjo jokes, his devotion to his family, his love of nature, his love of music and bluegrass (not necessarily the same thing), and his encouragement of others are lights that won’t be dimmed.

Jerry would have appreciated us letting the flowers grow, and instead giving a donation to St. Thomas’s Church (276 S. College Ave., Newark, DE 19711) or The Nature Conservancy (TNC-Delaware, 100 West 10th St., Suite 1107, Wilmington, DE 19801). A Celebration of Life with Eucharist in Jerry’s memory will be held on November 3 at 11am at St. Thomas’s. A light lunch will follow.