Writings
After Jerry retired, he began writing a book of memories of his life. Focusing heavily on the 1930's and 1940's, the book amounted to 275 pages. In June of 1993, he self-published the book, making a number of copies that he handed out to friends and family. The second part of the book consists of a few sermons that he selected.
The book is presented here in two sections. It's in PDF format, scanned as published by Jerry. This digital format is such that you can jump to chapters using the "bookmarks" on the left side, as well as by clicking on a chapter within the book's table of contents.
While visiting my dad in Council Bluffs in late 1994, I asked him if he had kept copies of the sermons he had given throughout the years. He told me that he had, until recently, kept every sermon he ever gave but just a few months earlier had thrown 99% of them away (This memory conflicts with the story he tells in the book above - but it's a memory nonetheless). I was crushed! Crushed that I hadn't taken an interest earlier and perhaps saved them from this fate, and crushed that he didn't feel at that point in his life that they were important enough to keep. "What would you want with all that junk?" he asked me.
As a bit of a consolation, he told me that he had saved some sermons and prayers that he thought were some of his best. This is the entire collection of those documents. Most are undated but I've tried to group them according to era, based on clues from the backs of the pages they were typed on (Dad recycled a lot of paper for his sermons) and the typewriter that was used. The groupings then, are guesses at best. (Sermons are dated or referenced by church, if known, as well as "titled" or referenced by [first lines])
- Les Irvin