Jerry Harris resume
Academic and professional life
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His Story
A life built in six chapters
1946 – 1964 · Independence, Missouri
A boy from Independence
Jerry Stephen Harris was born March 15, 1946 in Independence, Missouri — the same city Joseph Smith designated as Zion. He grew up with frequent moves in early childhood before his family settled when he started fifth grade, and he attended William Chrisman High School, class of 1964 ("Go Bears!").
He was a quiet, thoughtful kid — shy at first, with a stutter he overcame through sheer determination. He played basketball, earned Eagle Scout in 1963, and served on Student Council his junior year. His parents, Gerald C. and Juanita Harris, ran a dry cleaning business; his brother Mark was his closest childhood companion and co-conspirator.
1964 – 1972 · England, BYU, Army
England, the Army, and the man he became
After a year at BYU — "kind of lonely," he wrote in his journal — Jerry felt a call to serve a mission. He left in June 1965 for the Southwest British Mission in Bristol, England. Two years later he returned transformed: confident, purposeful, and genuinely devoted.
He finished his psychology degree at BYU in May 1970 and was drafted into the Army that July. He served at Fort Leonard Wood, Fort Ord, Fort Benning, and Fort Riley — where he became second counselor in the Junction City Branch presidency. He was released in January 1972 with the quiet assurance of a man who had faced things and come through them whole.
1968 – 1969 · Provo, Utah
Suzi-Q
Jerry met Sue Martin on a tennis court in Provo in the spring of 1968. He was smitten immediately. They became engaged in March 1969, and on June 4, 1969, they were married and sealed in the Los Angeles Temple — the beginning of 53 years together.
Sue was the center of his world. He called her "Suzi-Q" and rarely went a day without demonstrating it in small ways: the way he looked at her across a room, the way he made her laugh, the way he deferred to her in every gathering and beamed when she spoke.
1972 – 1996 · California
Family and calling
Jerry and Sue adopted Holly and Brian, building the family that became the center of their lives. They settled in West Covina, then Sacramento — where Jerry spent 18 years as a clinical therapist and supervisor with LDS Family Services, earning his EdD from University of the Pacific in 1987.
But home was the point. Annual campouts at New Brighton Beach. Trampoline sessions with the Beach Boys playing loud. Root beer at Sunday dinner. Baseball games and fishing trips. He showed up for everything, and he made everything count.
2013 – 2015 · BYU–Hawaii
The Hawaii mission
In their late sixties, Jerry and Sue answered another call — 23 months at BYU–Hawaii as Director of Mental Health Services. Jerry counseled students, supervised therapists, and carried his gentle presence into a new generation of young people far from home.
Hawaii stories are part of family legend now: the students he helped, the adventures with Sue on the island, the time they were airlifted off a mountain — and "survived to laugh about it."
2016 – 2022 · Fair Oaks, California
The good, full years
Jerry and Sue returned from Hawaii and made their home on Terrace Oak Circle in Fair Oaks. Grandchildren were the great joy of these years — seven of them, each one loved with particular attention. He remembered their birthdays, their interests, their stories. He knew each one.
He traveled with Sue to England, took cruises, attended every family gathering. He collected coins and chocolate milk and pickle-peanut butter sandwiches ("larapin' good," he'd say). He was gentle and dapper and fully alive right up until he died at home on October 21, 2022, in Sue's arms.