One month before Jerry Crouth, ’61, was born, his father was permanently institutionalized at Marcy State Mental Hospital, leaving his mother, Merna, alone to raise six children near the end of the Depression. With tenacity, faith, love, and her Irish sense of humor, she was able to keep her family together and leave a legacy for each offspring that inspired their own life journeys.
Crouth has chronicled his life growing up with this remarkable woman and the lessons she taught him in his book, “’Thank You, Mom‘: My Life’s Stories Growing Up in the Forties.”
“My book brings readers back to the 1940s to see the life I experienced as a boy living on welfare in Rome, N.Y., during and after WW II. It also details the trials my family endured before my birth, during the Depression years,” he said. “The fact that there is so much happiness throughout the book is a testament to my mother’s trust in God, her toil and sacrifices, and the love she bestowed on all six of us kids.”
Crouth had published stories of his days as an altar boy, Sunday dinners, and family Christmases in the Diocese of Albany’s The Evangelist and in local Rome, N.Y., newspapers, but never considered republishing them in book form. The encouragement of a friend and his own desire to preserve the stories for his family changed his mind. His 244-page book was published in March of this year. Crouth added over 50 photos/illustrations and a prologue and epilogue to some of the 43 complete story chapters. He also included his mother’s own memoirs.
This is the second book he has published during a career that included 26 years in sales and sales training management for Xerox and as a freelance writer and radio host since the 1990s. His first book, “Making Documents into Mail: The Print to Post Handbook for Xerox Printers,” was based on articles he wrote for Mail Magazine, the Journal of Communications Distribution.
Crouth credits Divine Providence with leading him to Niagara University in the fall of 1957. As a senior at St. Aloysius Academy, he wasn’t sure what his next step would be until graduation night, when he was awarded a scholarship to Niagara University that would cover half of his tuition and room and board costs for four years. He also was given a $300 check from Rome Cable for coming in first among area high school seniors competing for the factory’s “Self-Reliance” award. The combined awards covered his first semester fees to NU during his freshman year.
At Niagara, Crouth met Vivian Vinett, who would become his girlfriend by October of freshman year and his wife on Aug. 26, 1961 (they renewed their vows before their class’s Mass at NU Alumni Chapel during their 50th Alumni Reunion). He majored in English and philosophy, completed advanced ROTC, and minored in business. His extracurricular activities included the Glee Club, the Drama Club, the Basilian Literary Association, and intramural sports. He also was faculty house reader during Vincentian meals in his sophomore and junior years, and served as vice president to class president, Bill Gacioch, in his first year.
When Crouth needed financial help from NU in order to stay for the second semester, the Rev. Edward J. Burke, C.M., arranged for him to be given both a $128 burse and a job in the development office working for the Rev. Richard D. Devine, C.M.
“I’ll always be grateful for the four-year Niagara University scholarship I received and for the financial gift the school gave me that kept me from dropping out at the beginning of the second semester of my freshman year,” he said.
Additional money to date Vivian was earned by hitchhiking to Lewiston to shovel driveways that first winter. His final three years of college expenses were covered by selling Bibles door-to-door. As unit sales manager, he hired and trained fellow Niagarans. Not surprisingly, Bill Gacioch was a quick learner and among his more successful salesmen, Crouth said.
Crouth’s success in sales led to a 26-year career managing regional sales and training for Xerox Corporation following two years of service in the Army. As he progressed in his career, he and Vivian raised seven children and established their home in Ballston Spa, N.Y.
When the cross-country travel required by his job became too burdensome, Crouth took an early retirement from Xerox in 1993 at age 53 and began a second career as a freelance writer and associate editor for Mail Magazine. His articles for that publication were used to produce “Making Documents into Mail” in 1996, which he said is considered “the Bible for automating business mail.”
Crouth also joined a local barbershop chorus and began organizing fundraising events to support it. He promoted these events on radio stations in the Albany area and established a friendship with John Meaney, a DJ on WKAJ AM 900 in Saratoga Springs. A few years later, when he and three of his sons started their own quartet, Crouth reached out to his DJ friend to help promote an upcoming parish church performance on his radio show. Two days later, after learning Meaney needed help at the station, Crouth launched his “Sentimental Journey” weekday show and became marketing executive for that station. A month later, Meaney left to work at nearby Star Radio 103.1 FM, leaving Crouth as station manager at WKAJ until it was purchased in 1999. Crouth returned to the air in 2001, when Star Radio management invited him to re-establish his show on their station. His current 60s-70s “Oldies Show” can now be streamed on the Saratoga Fun FM Radio 93.3 FM website on Saturday mornings.
When looking back on the varied jobs he’s held since graduating from Niagara 64 years ago, he joked, “I keep changing careers until I get one right.”
Throughout the years, Crouth and his siblings remained close to their mother. On the eve of her 92nd birthday, Dec. 29, 1997, they gathered for one last time in their family home for dinner before she moved into a nearby assisted living home. When Merna died seven years later at age 98, her six children served as pallbearers.
“My mother insisted that she would never give up one of us, and she didn’t,” Crouth said. “And the six of us were her last escorts on the day she was buried.”
One of his last memories of his mother was just days before she passed away. Crouth, his daughter, Lisa, and her husband had gone to visit Merna. Lisa, a talented pianist, accompanied her father in a rendition of the Irish songs “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral” and “Mother Machree,” songs he sang to Merna over the years on St. Patrick’s Day. As he was leaving, Merna repeated what she said each time he sang these songs to her.
“Oooh, Jerry. That was beautiful… Ya still got it, kid,” she murmured.
Merna caught pneumonia and died in the Rome Hospital on July 13, 2004, where she had worked in the maternity ward on the midnight shift for 25 years until age 70, after getting off welfare in 1950. Though now gone, the memories of her live on, thanks to the love and admiration of her son.
