Died: 4 October 2012
Jennifer Louise Gerner died on 4 October 2012 at her home in Ithaca, New York after battling sarcoma cancer for several years. She was 64 years. Jennifer was born in Shenandoah, Iowa in 1947. She graduated Shenandoah High School in 1966. She was married in 1968 and divorced in 1994
Jennifer was a devoted mother to her two sons, and loved to cook for them and entertain their friends throughout her life. She wrote two editions of a cookbook for them with favorite family recipes and anecdotes. She was part of a neighborhood bridge group for many years, and a regular at the Ithaca Saturday Farmers Market. In 1994 she toured Russia as a member of the Ithaca Community Choir. Jennifer was a Professor Emerita in Cornell University’s Dept. of Policy Analysis & Management. She earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined the Cornell faculty in 1974. At Cornell, she loved interacting with students; she was a Faculty-in-Residence at Sperry and Balch Halls from 1993-1997, and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Human Ecology from 1997-2004. From 2004-2006 she was Special Advisor to Vice President for Student & Academic Affairs Susan Murphy; and from 2011-2012 she was Chair of the Institutional Review Board for Human Participants for Cornell’s Ithaca campus. She taught classes in public policy, family policy, and technology policy and the law; and she did research on warranties and service contracts, and the effects of family disruptions on children’s outcomes. She retired from Cornell in September 2012.
Jennifer is survived by her sons, Josh & Nick, honorary son, Andy, daughter-in-law, Susan, three siblings and many close friends and colleagues in the Ithaca community.
A public Memorial Service will be held in the Anabel Taylor Chapel, on the Cornell University Campus on Monday, 19 November 2012 at 4:00 p.m. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Sloan-Kettering cancer research at http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/jennifergerner. Bangs Funeral Home is assisting the family.
Jennifer is listed in the 4th edition of the Seidemann Family Tree Book on page 304 with her previous husband Jerold Gerner and their sons, Joshua and Nicholas.