- Date Of Birth: January 6, 1940
- Date Of Death: April 1, 2019
- State: Texas
Jerry L. Malina, January 6, 1940 – April 1, 2019.
The soul of beloved husband, father, P-Pa and friend, Jerry Lee Malina Jr., left this earthly plane April 1st, 2019. He was surrounded by family, as he had been since entering the ICU at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple, Texas on March 4th.
Jerry was born in Marfa, and loved returning to his roots in West Texas. This past summer, he and his wife, Daurice “Ricy”, road-tripped with two of their grandchildren to Marfa. They stayed at the beautiful El Paisano Hotel and were able to show their grandchildren their P-Pa’s elementary school, the gym where he played sports, his grandparents’ home and the house his parents lived in when he was born.
Jerry entered the world as the first baby born in Presidio County in 1940, as was so noted in the local paper (January 6th to be exact). On the occasion of his birth, his parents, Gladys and Jerry Senior, were showered with gifts from local merchants. Living in Marfa until he was 10 made a life-long impact on Jerry. He loved the outdoors and became an avid rock, arrowhead and knife collector as well as a skilled hunter and fisherman.
Jerry’s love for cars began early. His Uncle Steve, along with Jerry’s Dad and Grandfather (T-Pa), owned the Marfa Bakery. Uncle Steve had a small restaurant next to the bakery and he gave Jerry the job of maintaining the Coke machines outside. Uncle Steve said whatever he earned, he could keep and Jerry made the most of the opportunity. By the time his family moved to Temple in 1950, Jerry had saved enough money to buy a car! He and Uncle Steve went to Waco where Jerry bought a 1929 Ford Model A. Uncle Steve drove the car back to Temple as Jerry was too young to drive. Jerry got his license the following year at 14.
A list of all the cars Jerry has owned over the years numbers over 50! When Jerry retired in 2001, he and Ricy drove to Snohomish, Washington and hauled a fully-restored, red, 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air back to Temple. The next adventure was to Syracuse, NY in 2004 to purchase a 1940 Ford that he restored and painted black, just like the car he had driven while at Temple High School when dating his high school sweetheart: Daurice Williams. The third classic car for his collection was found in Ann Arbor, Michigan: a fully-restored 1929 Model A Ford—the exact model of his very first car!
Jerry attended Temple High School from 1954-1958. His first love was playing football for the Temple Wildcats. The popular saying “Once a Wildcat, Always a Wildcat” expressed his sentiment perfectly. He held ten season tickets and seldom missed a game in the 60 years since his graduation. His best friends have always been the Wildcats from the Class of 1958. Jerry was such an outgoing, friendly young man that he was named the senior with the best personality by his classmates. In high school Jerry joined the Army National Guard of Texas and received an Honorable Discharge in 1965.
After graduation he attended Temple College; at that time the school was Temple Junior College. In the fall of 1959 Jerry went to work for a company in Temple named Ralph Wilson Plastics Company. Jerry was a career-long employee of this company that became Wilsonart. At Wilsonart he learned the ins and outs of laminate manufacturing. His curiosity matched his energy, and he quickly rose in the company, eventually becoming the Director of Research and Development. He traveled extensively. These trips were exciting and easy for Jerry, fluent as he was in the common language of manufacturing expertise. His easy going and humble personality made him a valued and trusted friend among colleagues.
He began at Wilsonart in the plate department. Within eighteen months he was transferred to the Quality Control Department. There were three Quality Control Technicians and the main function of the lab was to improve the existing product. This was Jerry’s introduction to the laboratory work in which he would become so skilled.
Jerry’s story at the company was included in “The Wilsonart Story” published in 1981 on the company’s 25th anniversary:
“In 1961 the company wanted a 5×12 press. This press was not favored by the industry. We bought it, and the industry said we were in trouble. It was too late now. The company owned it. We had to make it work. Jerry Malina sat alongside that press for six weeks. Malina changed the heating and cooling. People brought him sandwiches. He adjusted the resin concentrations in the paper. He shaved in the men’s room, and people brought him hot meals. He adjusted the flows. People brought him clean shirts from home. He adjusted the press cycles, the times, and the temperatures. The possible combinations of variables were staggering. He tried them all with no computer assistance.
‘Well, when Jerry Malina walked away from that 5×12 and went home,’ Dr. Wilson explains, ‘that press was making postforming grade laminate. And we were the first people in the industry to do it on a big press.’”
In 1975 he was promoted from Product Development Manager to Director of Research and Development. During his years at Wilsonart Jerry traveled extensively with over 40 trips to Germany alone to buy equipment, as well as sourcing trips to Russia, Italy, Australia, Japan, India and China. Jerry retired from Wilsonart on February 21, 2001 after a 41 year career. His title at that time was Distinguished Researched Fellow.
Jerry re-connected with his high school sweetheart, Daurice (née Williams) at the 35th class reunion of the class of 1958. Once they re-found each other, they held on with the intensity of those who know how rare and precious true love is. Indeed, once Jerry retired, they were rarely apart.
Having two children each from their previous marriages, Jerry and Ricy approached all of them as “their” children (all were adults by this time). Together they enthusiastically assisted in life events, major and mundane. They helped their children in cross-country moves, assisted in one’s opening an art gallery on Fifth Avenue in New York City, drove new cars cross-country to them, and were present for several of the births of their 8 grandchildren. Though their two daughters, Julie and Susan, live on opposite coasts–San Francisco area and New York City respectively–Jerry and Ricy still managed to be very “present” in their lives. Susan joked that they drove to New York City the way other people drive to the grocery store. They loved to hit the road together! Sons, Jeff and Ken each resided in Temple and were in frequent touch with Ricy and Jerry. Ken has recently moved to Wyoming where he is a minister in the United Methodist Church.
Jerry was such a fun-loving, kind, and generous person. He never saw someone who needed help of any kind without stopping to see what he could do for them. He was multi-talented at most every repair needed around the house or car. He loved to make people happy.
His family reflects on his April Fools Day passing as being perfect for Jerry. Jerry loved playing the fool. Not the fool who is unaware of his foolishness, but rather the fool who is entirely aware–the fool who embraces his foolhardiness with a hardiness seldom seen. If you were stewing in anger or weighed down with work or just in a funk, you could count on Jerry to make up a silly jingle, make a rude noise, do a little dance, whatever it took playing the fool to break you out of it, to make you laugh, to help you find some perspective. Perhaps the best evidence that this is who Jerry was is found in the singular piece of advice Ricy gave recently to their 11-year-old granddaughter about the opposite sex, “find a man who makes you laugh,” she said. This is who Jerry was for her these 25 years. Through thick and thin, he made her laugh, and they laughed together. And that’s what kept them in love and that’s what kept them feeling young.
His expansive, joyful energy will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.
Jerry was preceded in death by his parents Jerry L. Malina Sr. and Gladys Waguespak Malina.
He is survived by his wife, Daurice; a son, Jeffrey Malina of Temple; a daughter, Julie Carling of Piedmont, CA; a daughter, Susan Jarrell and her husband, Josh Carter, of Brooklyn, NY; a son, Pastor Kenneth Jarrell of Riverton, Wyoming; grandchildren Sabrina and Hanley Carling of Piedmont, CA; Jackson Jarrell, Reed Carter, Augustine Jarrell, and Bucky Carter, all of Brooklyn, NY; and Andrew and Mallory Jarrell of Temple, TX.
