Gerald LeRoy Kirstein

Gerald LeRoy Kirstein (Gerry), age 72, of Medford, OR, died Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Gerry was the son of the late LeRoy M. Kirstein and the late Helen Rinehart Kirstein Degracia. He was born in Orlando and at the age of two moved to Hawaii where he father was then stationed in the Air Force. The family moved to Takoma, WA, and then to Fairfield, CA, where Gerry finished his school years.

As a friend, Gerry could be challenging, informative, exasperating, and deeply caring. He was also brilliant, kind, and forgiving, with a wild and goofy sense of humor.  He always wanted people around him laughing--relaxed, happy.  His friend Bill calls him “fearless!” He was fiercely loyal to friends and family, and we knew he always had our backs. Always! For a lifetime. He was unique, he is unforgettable, and no one could have asked for a better pal to join him in this mad world.

Gerry loved literature, language, music, traveling, politics, clever humor, cooking for others, good wine, and most of all his friends and family with a passion. He graduated from Berkeley in 1972 and began his sojourns, first to Brazil where he was a crew member on a German cruise boat floating the Araguaia River. From there, that connection began his lifelong love of Europe, especially Germany and France. Gerry’s book, Some Are Born to Endless Night-- Jim Morrison, Visions of Apocalypse and Transcendence, was published in 2012. The book details, among other things, his life during those itinerant years and sums it up well. The “visions of apocalypse” may well have been at least partially his own, in addition to Jim Morrison’s, because he himself was so perceptive about global warming and its ramifications.

Luckily for his love of travel, Gerry spoke four languages fluently—German, French, Portuguese, English--and several well enough to get help and get by. He and Carol made five trips to Europe between 2012 and 2019, personally tour-guided by Gerry.

Gerry traveled by himself around the west in recent years to visit the National Parks, his grandparents’ roots, Indian lands, and places where Vikings made inroads into the US in the 1300’s. He preferred to have his sweetheart Carol with him, and occasionally she would go when there was no pandemic threat. Their final trip was a long-planned drive across the country to see their dear friend Diane in North Carolina and then to Virginia to visit Carol’s sister Ruth and husband Tom. They encountered a great sandstorm in New Mexico along the way and, as a result, cut their travel time long enough to have lunch with Carol’s cousin Mary Lee and husband Jack in Oklahoma. The cap on the trip would be the return drive at a more leisurely pace when Gerry would show Carol the wonders that he had seen on his solo trips. But that was not to be. They had one glorious day with Diane in North Carolina. At the end of the day he suddenly slipped away from our loving hands.

Gerry is survived by his Life Partner Carol Sparks and his daughters Leslie Kirstein and Renee Kirstein.  His friends were so treasured that they require naming as well, in approximate order of appearance:  Bill & Ann Zuerner, Michael (deceased) & Ann Nourot, John & Alison Nicol, Ian McNeill, Gary Kimsey, Johnny Colla, Don McLoud, Scott Steffens, Mark Jabbour, Paul Krueger, brothers Fritz and Chris Wille, Roswitha Maier-Spiegel, Gisela Maier, Dan Steele, Dieter Mock, Geza Spiegel, Emmy Schwarz, Dave & Judy Parry-Jones, Diane Jaster, George & Barbara Genthe, Roberta Teran, Diane Kernohan, Nancy Erion, Lourdes & Steve Smith, Leesa Nystrom, Christine Menager, Michael  Scanlon, Tami Mitchell, Jungmin, Priscilla Dean, Eph & Wendy Reid. 

You could plant a tree in his memory, if you would like to honor Gerry. He planted two Quaking Aspens the night before leaving for North Carolina. He was looking forward to seeing their fall shimmer. The world cannot have enough trees, in Gerry’s view.

No services are planned. An online guest register is available at www.mcmahansfuneralhome.com.

McMahan's Funeral Home & Cremation Services in charge of arrangements.

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