The Boxing Years

Before the war, Jack Gebert was a boxer. In fact, his son, John Jr. has a picture of him as a Golden Gloves Boxer that family lore says appeared on the cover of Ring magazine and that, his son willing, will soon grace this page. 

Harry Shaffer of the company Antiquities of the Prize Ring disputes that Jack appeared on Ring's cover. He stated, "I have a complete listing of all The Ring cover subjects from the magazine's inception in 1922 until the present day and there is no record of an issue with Johnny Gebert on the cover." He did add, "However, Johnny Gebert is listed in Nat Fleischer's All-Time Ring Record Book, 1944 Edition.  He is noted as being born in Freeport Long Island [Note: Jack was born in Manhattan, lived in Freeport.], listed as a Featherweight and having participated in 25 fights in 1943, winning 19, losing 3, being knocked out twice, and one ending in a draw." Mr. Shaffer may yet find the article.

Jack and Alma Furlong eloped to Baltimore, MD where Jack was working as a "pile driver". They married on March 12, 1940. A picture of them was published in a Baltimore newspaper when the apartment house they lived in had a fire. He was in Philadelphia when daughter Patricia was born in Temple University Hospital. From Philadelphia they went back to Baltimore, then on to Savannah, GA and Portsmouth, VA where he was driving piles apparently preparing for World War II.^a.5

Settling on Long Island

When Jack enlisted in the Army on June 12, 1942 his address was in Astoria, Queens County, New York which isn't a great distance from Brooklyn but was certainly far enough away from her family in Brooklyn to prevent daily visits.^k.4 Jack's  sister and Alma's close friend, Violet Gebert, moved in with Alma and would go back to Brooklyn on weekends to help her own family. Violet gave Alma a big hand and scrubbed the house immaculate, including the floor mouldings.^a.4

Apparently on one of Jack's visits home, he decided to move his wife and child to the clean air of Freeport, NY on Long Island where their second child, John, was born in December 1942.

In his later years, Jack said his Army recruiter had suggested that he was running away from family responsibilities by going off to war. It came to be a major regret for Jack.^a.4

Perhaps moving his family to Freeport was to assuage his conscience. Jack had been a Fresh Air Child who had spent many summers out in the country and perhaps considered it, at the time, a gift to his family to live in the country.

In those days, Freeport was indeed rural but Alma may also have felt abandoned and isolated from her extensive supportive family in Brooklyn. But not completely cutoff. Grandma Gooden [Her uncle's estranged wife and mother of her good friend and cousin, Lillian Kelly] lived in the next town, Roosevelt. 

There is a story in family lore that when the family lived at 730 So. Bayview Ave., Freeport,^i.5 it was at the water's edge. One day, Pat and her aunt Florence [Jack's youngest sister who was only six weeks older than Pat] were playing with dolls outside. One of the adults glanced over and noticed little Patty holding Florence's legs while Florence tried to reach off the dock into the water to get a doll. This was sometime after June 12, 1942, their age at the time would have been 18/19 months, to at the latest, just past their third birthdays in January 1944 which was when the family moved to Roosevelt.

Pat^a.5 recalls that shortly after Judy was born, Alma moved the family to Roosevelt at 116 Pennywood Ave. Indeed, Judy was baptised at Holy Redeemer Church in Roosevelt. Alma and the children lived upstairs at the Gooden house until Jack was discharged on Nov. 9, 1945.

Jack was awarded the following decorations for his war service:

Jack rarely spoke of his decoration for bravery during WWII when he brought in a troop of surrendering Germans in Italy.^i.6 The story his children heard from him was that he was resting in a barn when he was confronted by about a dozen Germans. He was terrified until he realized that they weren't in the killing mood; rather, they wanted to surrender. So he led the group singlehandedly into town to his unit and for that he was considered a hero.
Jack's brother, George, recalls the story as, "Jack was out on patrol and was looking for a place to take a nap. He spied a barn and opened the door. Inside was about a dozen hungry Germans clamoring to surrender. Jack piled them into a truck and drove them back to his unit.
That was probably what earned him the Bronze Star. Jack didn't see that as bravery; he was just helping some hungry guys out.

During the 1950's when his children were growing up, Jack was a Police Boys Club boxing trainer. He led the club in their efforts to put on an annual fund-raising boxing show in the parking lot behind Albrecht's bakery where his wife, Alma, worked.

Every year at Christmastime, Jack would make the rounds visiting all his kinfolk throughout the New York area. As he aged, so many children children mistook him for Santa Clause that he bought a Santa suit and played the part with glee. Even after he moved from Long Island, he always had no problem being invited to do his part during the holidays.

After many years of working at Armored Carrier Corp. as a driver and continual losses in his own business, Ken-Jon Installations installing aluminum siding and doors, Jack accepted an offer to transfer to California. When in Los Angeles, he lost no time in finding all the local bowling alleys and becoming league secretary. In fact, as a parting salute, John Jr. placed his Dad's bowling ball with him in the casket before it was closed.

John Joseph Gebert, Sr. died on October 12, 1982 of heart disease.^d.9

Jack's Family

Jack's wife, ALMA GERTRUDE FURLONG, was born on February 4, 1922 in Brooklyn, NY^d.4, and died on March 1, 1975 in Gainesville, FL where she’s buried in Evergreen Cemetery.^k.6 Alma's story is on the Furlong Family History web page.

PATRICIA ANN GEBERT Whelan Paulsen, RN Ph.D., [pictured right] was born in Philadelphia, PA^d and is now living in Albuquerque, NM. Pat has always been an active, outdoors person and racewalked competively during her first decade in New Mexico. She serves as a qualified umpire/referree for local events including the senior olympics.
Pat earned her RN and BA in Nursing at Adelphi College in NY and her MSN in Nursing in Gainesville, FL. After she moved out west, she earned her EdS and PhD in Education at the University of New Mexico where she worked at the University's Mental Health Center for many years as Director of Training and Development.

Pat has three children [her first son was followed by twin girls 11 months later] by her now deceased first husband, Richard Whelan.

Kevin James Whelan, a bachelor, works as a supervisor in a national courier service based in California. He loves to go deep sea fishing off the Southern California coast. That's him with his catch of the day on April 17, 1996.Honest!

Judith Arlene Whelan Koehler earned her Associate in Arts from the University of Florida is now the famous national radio disk jockey Julie Williams featured on KLove Christian radio. She started her career in radio when she was sixteen and got a part-time job at a local Gainesville, Florida radio station. After graduation, she got a spot at WAPE in Jacksonville, Florida and later was a staple at several Houston and San Antonio stations. Listen when you hear a woman's voice in a commercial, it could be Judy! She has a son, Danny, by her former husband, Dr. Cliff Koehler and is now in Sacramento, California. Judy and Danny are shown with the newest family edition below. NOTE: Judy was named for her mother's sister, Judith Arlene Gebert and Janice was named for her father's sister, Janice Whelan.

Janice Colleen Whelan Crowell earned an Associate in Science from Sante Fe Community Colege and is married to Tommy Crowell, M.B.A. by whom she has a son, Brian, and a daughter, Morning Joy. They live in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia where they are very active in their church. Janice is currently a missionary to Romania and also makes missionary trips all over the world. The photograph at right shows Morning Joy, Janice, and Brian with Dad, Tom, superimposed at top right.

Pat's fourth child was by her also deceased second husband, Holger Paulsen. At this time, the latest photograph available of her was taken about 1979 and also shows the family dog, Peggy.

Christine Paulsen has a Bachelors of Science in Psychology from the University of Florida and is married to Chris Halstead. Christine recently successfully performed as the general contractor for building their gorgeous new home in Atlanta and Chris, who has a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science is in charge of Delta Airline's humongous intranet web site.

JOHN JOSEPH 'Sonny' GEBERT, Jr. M.B.A., was born in Freeport, NY married Nancy Louise Sheets in Seattle, Washington After he earned an Associate's in Science from the Academy of Aeronautics in Flushing, NY, he built a Volkswagon bug from parts off his father's wrecked Volkswagon van and a junked beetle. As he was being wished bon voyage by his mother and sister Judy, he mentioned that he had enough money, $25, for food and gas to make it from Long Island to Seattle where he had been hired as an engineer.
Judy wouldn't let him leave without making him take $75 from her on loan. Good thing because he broke down in Pennsylvania! [Yes, he quickly paid it back from his first few paychecks.] On his way up the corporate ladder, he lived in Montana, Seattle, Colorado, California, Texas, West Virginia and Virginia. Along the way, his wife Nancy worked his way through Parks College of St. Louis University in Cahokia, Illinois where he earned a B.S. in Aeronautics. Later on when he was a plant manager for Johns Manville Corporation, he earned an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
He is now a top-level manager in a large, international Corporation and flies all over the western hemisphere visiting their plants. The fruit trees and gardens that he's planted in his many homes have always been the envy of each neighborhood. In between plantings, John works earnestly to bring down his golf score and keeps up with pro ball.
Nancy, although often alone raising their children during John's traveling jobs, always found time to be active in the PTA, work with seniors, and work with various animal protection groups. After the children went off to college, Nancy turned her talents to being a top saleswoman at Nordstrom, one of the top department stores in the nation. Recently, she witnessed some disturbing events and has become, as one person described to Nancy's delight, "a stiff-backed animal rights activist." She's now on a campaign to have laws changed that deal with commercial blood banks for animals.

Teresa Aileen, born in Seattle, Washington, recently gave John his first grandchild, Amber Luna. Teresa earned a MS in Biology from California State University and currently works as a Laboratory Instructor for the Chemistry Dept. at California State University at Chico.

Katherine Maria 'Katie' was born in Billings, Montana and will graduate with a bachelor of science in nursing degree from Colorado State University at Pueblo, Colorado in Spring 2001. She currently is working as a nurse while in school.

JUDITH ‘JUDY’ ARLENE GEBERT Picard, M.Ed., [the author of this family history] was born in Freeport, NY and is now living in Albuquerque. Named after the cartoon character in Gasoline Alley, Judy is now a Computer Science instructor at TVI Vocational Technical Community College. Having started in computers when they were toys in the early 1980's, she is the now the web master for her local computer society, the Faculty Senate and the Linux Student User group at TVI.

Judy earned her BA in Sociology and her M.Ed. in Vocational Educational Administration at the University of North Florida. Her avocation is Celtic culture: history, music, and art. The picture shown at right was taken at nephew Kevin Whelan’s high school graduation in the 1970’s. [my perogative ;-)]

Patricia ‘Toni’ Picard, Judy's only child, also lives in Albuquerque and is Database Administrator for the Albuquerque Metro. Board of Realtors. Her AA was earned at TVI Community College [No, Toni didn't take any of Mama's courses, but is nearly a computer geek, too.] As head of a Glider Lover's [a small, Australian, squirrel-like furred marsupial] web-based group and volunteer at the local Humane Society, Toni had thought of a career with animals but lately has in mind to get a Computer Science degree from the University of New Mexico and making animal rescue an avocation. ^a.4

ROBERT ALLEN GEBERT, M.S., born Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, NY, was last known to be active in a group promoting the legalization of marijuana in California. As a small child, he had a 'lazy eye' and wore an eye patch. Bobby also had blond streaks in his otherwise brown hair but with his hair usually cut very short, it looked like white patches on his head. When he walked, his head always seemed to tilt to the side.
When in junior high school, he was one of the first picketers at the UN to ban the bomb. Not too long after that, a newspaper reporter called the Gebert house and spoke to Bob's mother about a planned picketing at the UN regarding the Vietnam War. Boy, was Bob furious when he read about the planned picketing in the newspaper and saw his name. It said, "Robert Gebert will not be going, his mother said."
Known to the family as the ‘Professor’ because of his brilliance as a child, Bob won a full scholarship to Columbia University for his BA [He was a member of the S. D. S. and that also happened to be when they had the first student sit ins there.]. He also received a fellowship from M. I. T. for his M.S. in Philosophy but did not complete it. He went out to California about the time of the S. B. L. A. His last-known whereabouts was actively pursuing marijuana legalization with the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws [NORML] in the San Francisco area of California in the early 1980s. The picture above right was taken in 1979 in his father's apartment in Inglewood, CA.^a.4

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