Gerard "Gerry" Koperski

Gerard “Gerry” Koperski passed away unexpectedly early Wednesday afternoon, on April 20h, just twenty-one days after his 67th birthday. Born in Maisons-Lafitee, France, outside of Paris, he’s the son of the late Jean and Genevieve Koperski.

The family immigrated in 1959 to the Bronx, New York and later moved to Syracuse NY. Gerry graduated from SUNY Alfred State College with an electrical/mechanical engineering degree. The majority of his working career was with Klug Systems, a glass batch design firm in Rochester, NY. His work assignments through Klug led him to various locations in the United States, Korea, Poland, Venezuela, Mexico and other countries. After moving to Fargo, ND he was employed by Maro & Associates in Gwinner, ND, working at Bobcat. His love of adventure and travel took him from the Great Wall in China to the Inca Trail at Machu Picchu in Peru, hiking the Milford Track and fjords of New Zealand, touring Italy and Switzerland, and Fiji where he and Joan were married in 2002. He enjoyed several week-long bicycle trips through New England and the northern mid-west and most of all the annual trips to Maine to reunite with Frank, a college friend and eat all the fresh seafood.

He has hiked in most of the National Parks and many state parks in the Brevard area. His dream of hiking the AT (Appalachian Trail) was derailed in 2017 after a heart valve transplant but continued to do short one day hikes near Brevard. He religiously attended cardio rehab three times a week to maintain his health.

Gerry and Joan retired to the Brevard, NC area in 2008 where he remodeled their brick ranch home, doing complete kitchen and bathroom renovations, building retaining walls, installing channels in the gravel driveway to help divert water, building a garden shed and gazebo. His motto: “why pay someone to do it if he/we could do it ourselves”. He loved keeping busy by doing things with his hands and mind and was in the middle of replacing a shed floor at the time of his death, rebuilding and replacing wood on the deck the week before.

He would thoroughly research any project needing doing, from replacing electric car windows, replacing all the windows in the house, installing flooring.

He could and would do it all. He was a great cook, feeding six of us leg of lamb and kluski (polish dumplings) the Sunday before he passed.

He is survived by his wife, Joan Koperski, and sister Christine Zera of Marcellus, NY. He is so missed by his dog Otis who is completely bewildered by his absence.

Service arrangements will be announced at a later date.

To leave a condolence for the family of Gerry Koperksi, please visit “Tributes” at www.mooreblanchard.com Moore-Blanchard Funerals & Cremations is honored to serve the family.