Once again, my heart is broken with the passing of one of Cochecton’s Best: Jerry Yavarkovsky passed away on October 29 in Orange Regional Medical Center. I was talking to Jerry’s beautiful wife, Judy, who was married to him for 48 years. She was telling me a little bit about him. 

Gerald Harvey was his name. He was born in Manhattan and was a teacher at William Cullen Bryant High School for over 35 years. Jerry taught every level of mathematics, and he loved to teach. He brought his small house in Lake Huntington in 1969, and many years later he built his big white house. If you knew Jerry, you knew he loved kids, besides his son, Evan, who lives in San Francisco and all his friends. When Jerry and Judy moved up full time, they used their little house as a school to tutor the local children in math. Jerry would say, “I cannot take on anything extra, it’s regency time, I have to help the kids pass their tests.” 

Jerry was a part of the Town of Cochecton in many ways, he was a part of the Youth Group, Democratic Club, The Cochection Preservation Society, he was the chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals and involved with the litter pluck along with as a member of Grover Hermann Aux. Jerry had such a great since of humor; one of the many jokes he would tell was a math joke. “Why was five afraid of 6? Because seven eight nine.” He would giggle at the joke all the time. 

In memory of Jerry, donations can be made to St. Francis Outreach P.O. Box 9 or the Narrowsburg Ecumenical Food Pantry P.O. Box 54 both in Narrowsburg, NY 12764. Supervisor Gary Maas said it in a nutshell, “He was a really good guy.” In the famous words of Jerry Yavarkovsky, “Shalom y’all.” Jerry will truly be missed

Keep smiling and have a great week. You can email me at leeniebeans@citlink.net or call 845/252-3568 if you have any news. You can always check me out in community living.