Glen C. Gerhard (1935-2026)

Glen Carl Gerhard, aged 91, passed away peacefully on March 14, 2026 in Manchester, NH. Let it be officially noted that this occurred on "Pi Day."

He was raised in rural Upstate New York, surrounded by an extended, close-knit German immigrant family. The latter half of his youth was spent on the family dairy farm, "The Hills of Home," in East Bloomfield, NY. Here he grew into an avid, lifelong outdoorsman. As a farm boy, he was raised to believe in generous servings of pie—a quarter pie for his father Carl, one quarter each for himself and his brother Lee, and the final quarter split between his mother Helen and young sister Judith.

Glen left the family farm to become the first college-educated Gerhard, graduating from Syracuse University (B.S. Electrical Engineering 1956) and Ohio State (M.S. 1958, Ph.D. 1963). Following a short stint at General Electric, he spent most of his professional life as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UNH, Durham. He also served briefly as Interim Head of the ECE Department at UA, Tucson. After retiring, he enjoyed a busy consulting career; his only complaint was having to trade his preferred bola tie for a "real tie" when called to testify in court. Service was always a quiet backdrop to his career. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves, later taking on roles in Durham town government and as a church trustee.

His interests ran to the eclectic—hunting and fly-fishing, reloading his own ammo, nature photography; pipe organs, opera, classical music, Gilbert & Sullivan; Ohio State football and UNH hockey; genealogy, Civil War history, and ancient mythology. Puttering in his basement shop was his own kind of meditation. He retained perfect recall of every 1940s radio jingle he had ever heard; his children may never fully recover from his habit of belting out jingles in the grocery store aisles when they were teenagers.

Glen was a devoted husband of 68 years to his dear "Gwennie" (Gwenyth Gerhard), a loving father to his children Kristin Gerhard, Karin (Dan) Gagnon, Katrina (Jerry) Boyajian, and Karl (Heather) Gerhard, and a proud grandfather of ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

In his memory, eat the pie.

A private family service will be held to honor Glen's life.