Gerald and I shared the same birth date, July 31st. These past few days I’ve had a flood of memories from our early childhood and early teen years when Gerald, Quentin, Gino, Denis, Richy and I would play games of cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, football, baseball, touch football, stickball, and punch ball long after the street lights came on along Monticello Ave in the Bronx. After Gerald and his family moved to Eastchester we could be found running up and down the greens of Leewood golf course tossing balls and playing army in the woods opposite the golf course. As I look back, it is no mystery as to why he became a coach. We were all happy in those days, blissfully unaware that in time each of us would become athletes and then soldiers. Gerald followed the biblical dictum of leading “a quiet and peaceable life”. He was devoted to God, his family, relatives and friends. He was a true inspiration to his students, ballplayers and all who knew him. God Bless you, Gerald… you are truly a good and gracious soul. I miss you deeply, your loving cousin Justin and Rennae De Santis.