Gerald "Jerry" Thomas Seng

January 27, 1936 - October 17, 2021

Gerald “Jerry” Thomas Seng, 85, died on Sunday, October 17 at his home in Evansville. He was born January 27, 1936, in Jasper to Carl and Marcella (Bohnert) Seng. He was born nearly two months premature, at the family home during a record cold winter. He weighed less than 4 pounds at birth, and the doctor who assisted told his parents that “this child will survive only with perfect care,” to which his mother Sally responded “And that is exactly what he will get.” Her words were prophetic, as not only did Jerry survive, but he went on to thrive physically and mentally. He demonstrated an especially keen intellect, skipping second grade and becoming the first person in his family to achieve a college education, earning BS, MA, and Ph.D. degrees. As a high school senior, Jerry showed his potential by designing and building homemade SCUBA tanks, giving all the people at the Jasper Swimming Pool quite a thrill with his demonstration of this modern contraption! After achieving a BS in biology at Purdue, Jerry was proud to follow in his father’s footsteps by serving his Uncle Sam in the Army, where he won the Company Marksmanship Trophy, a citation for outstanding service, and several leadership positions in his unit. The Army made him a cook, where his culinary skills were recognized by the brass, who promptly assigned him to the General’s Mess. In later years while standing over a barbecue grill, he loved to share with onlookers—with a gleam in his eye—his favorite saying from his days as an Army cook: “When it’s smokin’ it’s cookin’, and when it’s black it’s done!” He was a proud and patriotic American, and was touched when he was able to participate in the “Honor Flight” of service veterans to Washington, DC in 2019. Upon honorable discharge from active duty in the U.S. Army, Jerry married his high school sweetheart, Ann Poe, at Holy Family Catholic Church in Jasper, and the two shared a truly great love over 46 years of wedded bliss. The first stop in his professional career was a short stint working as a district wildlife biologist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Though he loved working with natural resources, he soon went back to college for advanced degrees in biology and genetics, so he could pursue what would become his lifelong vocation—teaching. He was a natural-born teacher, always seeking ways to present information in multiple ways and from different perspectives, the better to reach the broadest possible spectrum of students. He had a wide-eyed wonder for living things, and was passionate about sharing that wonder and urging everyone he touched to do the same. His passion for teaching also came through in his parenting. He was a dedicated, devoted father to his three children, and found great joy in sharing his wonder about life and learning with them—often well past their ability to absorb it. He was famous for his fatherly “lectures” as a form of discipline, and he sheepishly shared in later years how one of the children once said: “Not another lecture! Can’t you just let Mom spank us?” His whole life he was concerned about and deeply committed to clear understanding and communication among people, and he worked hard to facilitate that anywhere he could. His first teaching gig as a college professor was at Wichita State University, where he taught from 1970 to 1976. It was in Kansas that he and Ann had their lives changed by Worldwide Marriage Encounter. This program, designed to make good marriages better, gave them new and better tools to enrich their communication and bring them even closer together in their sacrament. The ME weekend was absolutely life changing for them. They quickly agreed to become an ME Team couple, and went on to present dozens of weekends, to try to give that same gift to other married couples. It was in the Marriage Encounter community that Jerry first became acquainted with the knight-errant Don Quixote (from Cervantes’ Man of La Mancha), whom he heartily identified with for the rest of his life. Like Don Quixote, Jerry was a knight-errant, sallying forth to joust with windmills, to right all wrongs, to raise up the downtrodden, to follow The Quest—the Quest to make a difference in the world. All his life, Jerry was an avid outdoorsman, enjoying fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, sailing and photography. There were few things in life he enjoyed more than trying to trick fish into taking his lures. During the family’s years in Kansas, he bought and hand trained an English setter bird dog named “Dice.” He was immensely proud of his “white tornado,” and he loved telling the story of how Dice made an amazing retrieve one day right in front of the breeder, who asked in amazement, “Where did you get that dog?” Dice was much more than a great retriever—she became a dearly loved part of the family. In 1976, the strong gravity of family and the hills of southern Indiana pulled Jerry and family back to the Midwest, where he became a professor of biology at the University of Evansville, specializing in genetics and developmental biology. Although he was a skilled researcher, his primary interest—and all of his passion—was in teaching and working with students. He had formal assignments as a freshman advisor, but he always went WAY over and above his normal advising duties. He really cared about these young people, many of whom were away from home for the first time, and still trying to figure out, not only what they wanted to do with their careers, but who they wanted to be. He gave them his time; he gave them his wisdom; he gave them his love. And the students reciprocated his love, as witnessed by the hundreds of letters, notes, emails and phone calls he received from current and former students thanking him for his personal touch and care throughout his career. He was nominated for the Outstanding Teacher Award in 18 of the 27 years he taught at UE, and he won the award in 1999. Of all the formal accolades he received in his career, this was his most prized, but he cherished every heartfelt letter from former students every bit as much as the plaque on his wall. Jerry had an insatiable thirst for knowledge; a deep desire for understanding how things work, and a passion for sharing what he knew with anyone who was interested. He was well versed in and could speak intelligently on practically any subject. In 2002, Ann was diagnosed with ALS, so Jerry retired from teaching to become her full-time caregiver. Staying true to his vows, he walked her to the door to Eternity in 2005, never losing heart or faith in the One who brought them together. His mother used to say that “Goodness is the reward for goodness,” which may explain how Jerry was blessed to find a second true love in his life—Kathleen Bohm Boink, a longtime family friend from St. Benedict Cathedral. Their long friendship gradually grew into more than that, and the two married in 2013. Although they traveled overseas, both preferred shorter trips, closer to home, which they did frequently. Their favorite place was the restored historic hotel at West Baden, where they spent their honeymoon and nearly every anniversary of their wedding. Much to Jerry’s joy, Kathleen shared his love of fishing, and they spent many happy outings chasing bass at Lincoln State Park and other local lakes. They also enjoyed trips to the Ozarks, southern Michigan, and get-aways with Kathleen’s extended family at her brother’s “Country” cabin. Jerry was not a big fan of games, but Kathleen’s family was able to persuade him to play Pictionary—a thing rarely ever seen by anyone else in the family—apparently with raucous and hilarious results. Jerry and Kathleen put great emphasis on maintaining relationships, old and new. They loved hosting family gatherings at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and as a Christmas present every year, they arranged trips for the whole extended family to stay at an Indiana state park the following summer. In recent years, Jerry and Kathleen found a prayer group in Kentucky that became a very big part of their lives, and they also rediscovered the Traditional Latin Mass, which both of them dearly loved from their youth and re-engaged with great gusto. Their faith in God was the bedrock on which they built their sacrament, and they focused much effort and energy on the great love they shared. Upon reflection on the wonder of their love, Jerry was often heard to say, with a smile in his eyes, “You and me is sweet!” Aside from his deep and abiding faith in God, most of the family remember Jerry best for his sense of appreciation. He loved beauty and simple pleasures; wild things and wild places; and people. He loved all kinds of people, and had a charism for making people feel good about themselves, no matter their circumstances. He was forever counting his blessings and not his woes. He believed that if you could appreciate whatever blessings you had in your life, you had found the key to happiness. During the past few years, Jerry was writing a book, to try to share the wisdom on relationships he had gained in his life experiences. One of the lines he penned in his manuscript describes well how he lived his conviction to the fullest: “How blessed I was to have lived this marvelous life!” Praise God for a life well lived. Rest in peace, Jerry Seng. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife Ann and his brother Robert. He is survived by wife Kathleen (Bohm Boink), children Kris (and Dave) McGill of Newburgh, Phil and Laura Seng of South Bend, Indiana, and Rebecca (and Mike) Fitzmaurice of Granger, Indiana. Grandchildren: Nathan (and Stephanie) McGill, Miriam (and Brian) Reilly, Rachael McGill, Aaron (and Hayley) Seng, Justin Seng, Jenny (and Antonio) Marchi, John Paul Fitzmaurice, and Gregory Fitzmaurice. Great-grandchildren: Gianna-Marie, Felicity, Ambrose, Elizabeth, and Joseph Seng; Aria and Crystal McGill; Mariella and Simeon Marchi; Hannah and Austin Reilly. Visitation will be held Sunday, from 2:30 to 8 p.m. at Ziemer Funeral Home East. A traditional Latin Requiem Mass will be at 10 a.m. at Saint Mary Catholic Church at 613 Cherry St., Evansville. Memorial contributions may be made to Southwest Indiana Right to Life or St. Benedict Cathedral Parish or the Latin Mass Community at Saints Mary and John Parish.