E. Carroll Gerathy, 97, died on December 28th in Bellevue, WA. He was a resident of Summit, NJ for 51 years and a retired Senior Vice President of The Prudential Insurance Company.
Carroll was the son of Joseph Heusen Gerathy and Emma E. Donady and grew up in Southport, CT. After completing high school, he joined the pharmaceutical house of McKesson and Robbins where he was employed for 15 years. During WWII he was a Chief Warrant Officer in the Bureau of Naval Personnel. In 1948 he joined The Prudential Insurance Company in the Methods Division. While working at Prudential, he completed both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Chicago and his Chartered Life Underwriter designation from the American College of Life Underwriters. He was Senior Vice President of both Personnel and Corporate Services. During his career at Prudential, Carroll was widely admired as a great leader and described by many as the “best boss” they ever had. In 1954, while at Prudential, Carroll’s services were loaned to Robert B. Meyner, the Governor of New Jersey. The Governor requested extensive assistance from the business community to determine what State activities could be made to operate more efficiently and effectively. Carroll studied the Division of Employment Security and determined how to speed up the payment of unemployment benefits. Under his administrative expertise, procedures were developed for making payments more rapidly and more efficiently. Also, during the course of the study, he uncovered corrupt practices and a major embezzlement that involved state funds.
After 30 years of service, he took early retirement from Prudential. After a short retirement Carroll became the project manager for the construction of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Tower in Oahu and subsequently, was project manager for two of the Gateway Center buildings in Newark, NJ.
He greatly enjoyed “do it yourself” projects and was licensed as an Electrical Contractor. His skills made him popular with friends and neighbors. During his second retirement, Carroll gave generously of his time and talent to the non-profit organization, Sage, of Summit, NJ.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Julia Gill, his second wife, Joyce Baker and brothers Hank, Joe, Jerry and Don and his sisters Dorothy and Margery.
He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Betty Durkin of Bellevue, WA and his children and their spouses, Nancy and Dave Cole of Bellevue, WA, John Gerathy of Jalisco, Mexico, his step children, Steve and Chris Baker of Aberdeen, NJ and Nancy and Chal Randall of Greensboro, NC and his brother, George Gerathy, of Shelton, CT.
A Memorial Service will be held on January 7th at 1PM at the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, WA.
In lieu of flowers donations in his memory may be sent to Sage Eldercare, 290 Broad Street, Summit, NJ 07901 or Jubilee Reach, 14200 SE 13th Place, Bellevue, WA 98007.