Jerry Michael Hendricksen, age 65, passed away on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at Crossroads Care Center in Worthington, Minnesota.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, March 1, 2024, at George Boom Funeral Home & On-Site Crematory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The family will be present to greet friends for a memorial visitation on Thursday, February 29, 2024, from 5-7 p.m. at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the family.
Jerry was born in Mitchell, South Dakota, on February 28, 1958. He attended elementary school there until the family moved to Luverne, Minnesota, in 1965, where he continued his education and graduated in 1977 from Luverne High School.
After graduating high school, Jerry attended Willmar Area Vocational Technical Institute in Willmar, Minnesota, studying electronics. He returned back to Luverne, Minnesota, where he worked for KP-TV, repairing televisions, stereos, and other electronics.
He met his wife, Gayle, at Willmar Vo-Tech in December 1977, when he and his roommate decided they should have a party in Gayle's apartment she shared with three other girls. They were united in marriage on March 16, 1979 in Chokio, Minnesota. After marriage, the couple moved to Morris, Minnesota, where he worked for a local television/stereo repair business. In the evenings he enjoyed being able to be on a lake within about 15 minutes of leaving work and fishing till sundown. On the weekends he would go with Gayle to visit her grandparents, where he worked on a couple of old trucks her grandpa had and also took him fishing.
Jerry and Gayle moved back to Luverne, Minnesota, in late 1979, where he worked for his dad at Fred's Body Shop for a couple of years until moving to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to work with a friend at his gas station, repairing cars. He transitioned to working for the Get 'N Go franchise, repairing video games, arcade games, and pinball machines.
At this time he was offered a position with CitiBank, working with their telecommunications/data department. He was very proud of his work there, working on state-of-the-art telecommunications equipment that was some of the first of its kind. He worked with Citibank from about 1985 to 1992. After that, he was a private contractor, working on telecommunications equipment both in Florida and on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, installing ship-to-shore communications. He relished calling his wife in January to see what the weather was like, as he was basking in the Caribbean sun. They moved to Omaha in 1995, as both had jobs that had been eliminated, and he worked for First Data, a company that processed credit card transactions, and also a computer sales/installation company. He moved back to Sioux Falls in 1997 and worked for ResNet, an apartment cable installation service division of LodgeNet, then the State of South Dakota project initiating computer services in local businesses, which led him to Medical X-Ray Center in 1999. He worked for them until they were integrated into the local medical community, and then was with Avera Health Services, as a computer/printer maintenance technician until his retirement in 2016 due to health reasons.
After retirement, he still worked on friends’ and family computers, which he enjoyed doing. He also enjoyed camping with friends at local area campsites, fishing, getting together with friends or family outside with a nice fire going, and just enjoying each other’s company.
Grateful for having shared his life are his wife of 44 years, Gayle; brother, Greg Hendricksen and his wife, Julie, of DeForest, Wisconsin; sisters Peggy Hewitt of Luverne, Minnesota, Cindy Rierson and her husband, Dan, of Roseville, Minnesota, Kristi Mueller and her husband, Eric, of Marion, Iowa, and Nancy Hoogland and her husband, Terry, of Luverne, Minnesota; brothers-in-law Keith Melberg of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and Chris Melberg of Morris, Minnesota; and many dear nieces, nephews, and friends.
Jerry was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Delores (Stevens) Hendricksen.