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Smith Cross­ing Res­i­dent Jim Gerdy — A Renais­sance Man with a Big Heart

January 30, 2025 • Source: Orland Park Living

By Ash­ley Martens | Pho­tos by Megan Amy Creative

Wel­come to the res­i­dent fea­ture of Orland Park Liv­ing. This is a place for you to get to know your fel­low neigh­bors and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers one res­i­dent and fam­i­ly at a time. This month, we want to intro­duce you to Jim Gerdy, a Renais­sance man with a big heart.

In 2019, Jim Gerdy and Sandy, his wife who passed away in 2021, moved to Smith Cross­ing from Frank­fort where they had lived for 40 years. Jim and Sandy Gerdy’s sto­ry is one that spans a life­time, begin­ning in a most charm­ing way.

The pair met in fifth grade when they were just 10 years old,growing up only a street apart. Although life took them in dif­fer­ent direc­tions through high school and col­lege, fate brought them back togeth­er in a serendip­i­tous moment in 1964. One evening, Sandy found her­self locked out of her fam­i­ly’s home and decid­ed to head to Gerdy’s par­ents’ house to make a call.

As luck would have it, Gerdy was home and that unex­pect­ed encounter rekin­dled their con­nec­tion, and they soon real­ized their bond was meant to be. Three years lat­er in 1967, they exchanged vows at an inti­mate wed­ding, sur­round­ed by close friends and family.

Their love flour­ished, and on July 19, 1969, they wel­comed their son, James J. Gerdy fond­ly remem­bers his late wife, Sandy, and shares how proud they both are of their son, James J. Remark­ably bright, their son attend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go at just 15, before pur­su­ing a doc­tor­ate in quan­tum mechan­ics at the Cal­i­for­nia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy. James J. is mar­ried with two chil­dren and now resides in Phoenix. Jim and Sandy’s love sto­ry is a beau­ti­ful reminder of the endur­ing pow­er of con­nec­tion and the serendip­i­ty of true love.

Besides a love for his late wife and fam­i­ly, Jim’s jour­ney through acad­e­mia and the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try is a tes­ta­ment to his pas­sion for sci­ence and his remark­able exper­tise. Gerdy began his aca­d­e­m­ic career at Lake For­est Col­lege, earn­ing a degree in biol­o­gy, fol­lowed by a mas­ter’s degree in genet­ics at North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty. He ded­i­cat­ed five years at South­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty to earn his doc­tor­ate study­ing mol­e­c­u­lar biol­o­gy, evo­lu­tion­ary biol­o­gy, and genet­ics. There, he also honed his research skills. His post­doc­tor­al career led him to pro­fes­sor­ships at Val­paraiso Uni­ver­si­ty and Deni­son Uni­ver­si­ty. Gerdy’s first teach­ing posi­tions were at the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Fran­cis in Joli­et and Lewis Uni­ver­si­ty in Romeoville where he shared his knowl­edge with stu­dents for three years.

Gerdy chose the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try as his sec­ond career, spend­ing 10 years at SmithK­line as a sci­en­tif­ic liai­son in med­ical schools. His work there gave him the expe­ri­ence and insight to estab­lish OPERON Con­sult­ing. Gerdy named his com­pa­ny draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from a sig­nif­i­cant gene that cap­tured his atten­tion dur­ing grad­u­ate school. At the time, the dis­cov­ery of the mas­ter gene was ground­break­ing, and the con­cept of the oper­on was at the fore­front of genet­ic research. The name reflects his pas­sion for sci­ence and the last­ing impact this dis­cov­ery had on him. OPERON spe­cial­ized in bridg­ing pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor part­ner­ships, focus­ing on pay­or strate­gies, provider oper­a­tions, and mar­ket reg­u­la­tions. With an abil­i­ty to man­age com­plex infra­struc­ture, to plan and lead high-lev­el meet­ings, and to guide deci­sion-mak­ing process­es, Gerdy, and his team built a rep­u­ta­tion for help­ing com­pa­nies nav­i­gate the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal land­scape. OPERON thrived for more than 20 years. 

Through­out his career, Gerdy has trav­eled to more than 20 coun­tries, assist­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies as they deter­mined mar­ket readi­ness for new prod­ucts and drugs. His work ranged from con­sult­ing with senior exec­u­tives to lead­ing sem­i­nars for physi­cians, as well as guid­ing the devel­op­ment of strate­gies for health­care orga­ni­za­tions world­wide. Gerdy’s blend of aca­d­e­m­ic accom­plish­ments and busi­ness acu­men made him a trust­ed fig­ure in both sci­en­tif­ic and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal circles. 

Gerdy has a deep appre­ci­a­tion for both art and knowl­edge. He is an avid pho­tog­ra­ph­er with a pas­sion for cap­tur­ing stun­ning land­scapes and strik­ing archi­tec­ture. His love for explo­ration extends beyond the lens he’s an enthu­si­as­tic read­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly drawn to books about sci­ence and archae­ol­o­gy, always eager to expand his under­stand­ing of the world.

When he is not behind the cam­era or immersed in a good book, Gerdy enjoys fol­low­ing his favorite sports teams. A ded­i­cat­ed fan of the Chica­go White Sox, Bears, and Black­hawks, he takes pride in sup­port­ing his home­town teams through every season. 

Gerdy has cre­at­ed a com­fort­able and ful­fill­ing life for him­self and oth­ers at Smith Cross­ing, where he enjoys the lifestyle afford­ed by his inde­pen­dent liv­ing apart­ment since 2019. He and his wife moved there as they con­sid­ered future health con­cerns, and he could not be more pleased with his deci­sion because the com­mu­ni­ty has enriched his life. ​“It’s a won­der­ful place to live; they take care of every­thing, mak­ing life easy,” Gerdy says, reflect­ing on the peace of mind the com­mu­ni­ty offers.

One of Gerdy’s favorite activ­i­ties is host­ing a twice-week­ly din­ner pro­gram, and he has proud­ly served as the trea­sur­er of the Res­i­dent Coun­cil for five years. Gerdy also man­ages Emi­lie’s Store, the onsite gift shop, stay­ing active and engaged with his neighbors.

After a career filled with exten­sive trav­el, Gerdy has embraced the qui­eter joys of retire­ment, now con­tent to be a home­body. When asked for advice, he empha­sizes the impor­tance of prepa­ra­tion: ​“Peo­ple don’t spend enough time plan­ning for their future. It is essential.”

Thank you so much to Jim Gerdy for par­tic­i­pat­ing in this mon­th’s issue. We can­not wait to intro­duce you to more of the fam­i­lies and res­i­dents of Orland Park! If you would like to be fea­tured or have a rec­om­men­da­tion, please email Ash­ley at amartens@​bestversionmedia.​com. We look for­ward to intro­duc­ing next mon­th’s res­i­dents or family!

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