Gerald LaVerne McCoach

Gerald LaVerne McCoach, age 84, passed away Monday, March 29, 2021, while in hospice care in Rio Rancho. He had been in considerable pain due to a variety of issues, and he declined options to prolong his life, so his passing should be considered a blessing.

He had lost his wife of 65 years, Juanita, in March of 2020.

Gerald was born September 9, 1936, in Osawatomie, Kansas, the son of Basil Ernest McCoach and Thelma Izora (Roberts) McCoach. He was a member of the Class of 1954 at Osawatomie High School, where he played football.

What follows is his own story, written a few years ago.

"After graduation, I joined the U.S. Navy on June 15, 1954. Spent 3 years 2 months and 10 days in the Navy. I went to boot camp in San Diego for 13 weeks, then I went to Norman, Oklahoma, for eight weeks of aviation school to learn about the different jobs available. They recommended I become an aviation mechanic, mainly because I helped my dad repair the family car and scored high on the mechanical part of the entrance test, however I wanted to go for electronics. I persuaded them to send me to the electronics school for 39 weeks in Memphis, Tennessee. A test was given after each week, and if I should flunk any two-week period, I would be removed from the school and assigned to a ship for duty. I did flunk once - sending and receiving eight words per minute of morse code. I was allowed to retake the test, and I passed, but I'm not so sure; I think maybe they just felt sorry for me.

"I had started dating Juanita Johnson from Fontana, Kansas, at the age of 15 and married her in Osawatomie while on Christmas leave from the Navy on December 26, 1954.

"After completing electronics school, the class drew their assignments from a hat. I pulled a squadron in the Philippines. After everyone had a place to go, we had the option to trade locations. I wanted to stay stateside, so I asked to switch with someone and received a photographic squadron in Norfolk, Virginia. I spent the next two years in Norfolk except for three months spent in Turkey. My squadron had a job there to photograph the country from 30,000 feet for NATO command in Europe.

"I had joined the Navy on what was called a 'Kiddie Cruise,' meaning I joined before I was 18 years old, and they had to discharge me before I was 21. I left the Navy in late August 1957 as a second-class petty officer and as an electronics technician. I attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence for one year then transferred to Central Technical Institute in Kansas City, where I graduated with an associate degree in Electronic Technology on May 20, 1960. I took a job with Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for two years, working with a single sideband transmitter for the Navy. While at Collins I did some testing in their environmental lab, where I was shown how to operate the vibration machine. I was given the job to vibrate a trailing-wire aircraft antenna. I started the test, and before the test was over, most of the screws holding the unit together had popped out. I discovered I had given the unit twice the vibration specification. I told the Navy inspector what had happened, and he passed the unit as acceptable.

"After I quit Collins, I found out they were planning to put me in charge of the environmental lab because I was the only technician with any kind of degree. But it was cold in Iowa, and the pay was bad, so I took a job with RCA as a field engineer at an Atlas missile site at Altus, Oklahoma, with a 20 percent raise. My main job was to train enlisted Air Force personnel how to repair closed-circuit TVs and to teach the officers how to operate the single sideband transmitters in the missile sites. I learned that within a year, the Air Force was replacing contract people like me with civil-service people, so I scheduled a vacation and went to Albuquerque to apply for a job with Sandia Corporation. Three months later, I accepted a job at Sandia as a manufacturing development engineer.

"The 28 years I was at Sandia I worked in manufacturing development, solar energy development, magnetic component design for weapons, and evaluation of security sensors to protect government nuclear facilities. I designed and developed a solar tracking system for an experimental parabolic solar energy system. I applied for a U.S. patent for the solar sensor, but a member of another group at Sandia saw my design and improved it for his use and got the patent. Later, I evaluated security sensors and developed unconventional ways to use them, applying again for a U.S. patent for a particular sensor, however I was informed that since my boss had given speeches about my work, the details had been public too long to be protected.

"In 1964, Juanita and I adopted a son, Randall LaVerne McCoach, and in 1967, we adopted our daughter, Kelly Ann McCoach.

"After working at Sandia for 10 years, they had two layoffs in two years. Juanita liked to read books, so we investigated the possibility of starting a used bookstore in the event I got laid off. I withdrew all my retirement funds ($4,100), and we started a used bookstore called the Eubank Paperback Book Exchange. It prospered, and after three years we purchased a house zoned for business and moved the bookstore, renaming it the Menaul Book Exchange. I converted the rooms of the house and installed the bookcases. We sold the business after 12 years and sold the building two years later. Started in 1975, our bookstore is still in business today.

"I retired from Sandia, now more commonly known as Sandia National Laboratories, on Oct. 1, 1991.

"Juanita and I sold our house in Albuquerque in March 1991 and purchased a 35-foot fifth wheel trailer and a Ford truck to pull it in preparation for retirement. During the next 13 years the stock market was good to us, and we purchased four new fifth wheels and three new trucks. We ended our travels with a six-ton truck that pulled a 40-foot fifth wheel trailer. For 13 years, we drove or flew to all 50 states and Canada. Having seen every site and road in the U.S., we purchased a double-wide mobile home in Mesa, Ariz., where we reside now."

-- Written by Gerald in 2010

As their health declined, Gerald and Juanita moved back to New Mexico in September 2018.

He is survived by his son, Randall McCoach and wife, Kelley Yaccino of Albuquerque; daughter, Kelly Colucci and husband, Dan of Gray, Maine; beloved granddaughters, Emily Colucci of Lewiston, Maine, and Isabella Colucci of Gray, Maine; brother, Larry McCoach and wife, Claire of Olathe, Kansas; and numerous nieces and nephews.

We would like to add that Gerald was a master of so many things he was perhaps too modest to mention above. He was an expert craftsman, making all of our household furniture in the early days, not to mention cradles, doll houses and other toys, and he nearly single-handedly carried out the expansion of our home, adding a garage and an additional back room. As he mentioned, he enjoyed playing with the stock market, and he created his own program/algorithm for predicting which stocks were most likely to experience an upswing, and he was rarely wrong. Oh, and he was very, very good at ping pong.

At his request, there will be no funeral or memorial service, but friends and family members are encouraged to leave notes of remembrance.