Grand Haven Mens Golf Assoc.

Our GHMGA Spotlight Golfer for November-December, 2014, is Jerry Chiddister. A familiar face to most MGA members, Jerry has been a great supporter and contributor to the MGA for many years. Turning 85 and missing being the Shootout Champion by a single short putt is no small feat.  

Jerry wishes he started golfing earlier in his life. He caddied for one summer when he was fourteen years old but played very little golf until he was 47 years old. At that time, he joined a company nine-hole golf group and an 18-hole golf group.  His favorite golf memories are being part of a foursome that played Hilton Head Island every May for 18 years. 

Jerry was born in Goshen, Indiana, in December 1928. A younger sister and an older brother completed the family.  He graduated Goshen High School in 1946.  His early teenage years coincided with World War II and he followed news of the war avidly, all the while wanting to be a fighter pilot.  From age 15, he worked after school and on Saturday mornings at the StarCraft Company, a manufacturer of metal rowboats and sheet metal livestock feeders and watering tanks. He showed early aptitude for engineering when he turned his bicycle into a motorbike by adding a washing machine engine. 

He married Sharron in 1950. He was working as a spot welder in the Studebaker plant when he was drafted into the Army in 1952 during the Korean War. He served in the Army as a plain-clothed counter intelligence agent until 1954.  It was nine and a half years after high school when he entered Tri-State University in 1958 where he received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then went on to obtain MS and PhD degrees in engineering at Michigan State.  

Jerry then began his 27-year career with General Motors starting with a ten-year period at Styling Staff.  He worked another ten years in GM Corporate Planning and, near the end of his GM employment, assisted in the defense of lawsuits. After retiring, he was self-employed as a vehicle accident re-constructionist for another ten years before a second retirement.   

During his Detroit years, his wife was very active in the Republican Party serving for several years as the county chairperson.   He attended two national conventions when Sharron was a delegate.  Sharron died in 1979 at the age of 46 after a long illness.  His only child, Jerry Ferguson (Fergie) left four grandchildren when he died in 2003 at the age of 42.  

In 1996, Jerry married Kathryn, who was just retiring after 35 years as a grade school teacher.  He and Kathryn visited many golf communities on both coasts of Florida before finding and falling in love with Grand Haven.  They said the past 13 years here in Palm Coast have been the best years of their lives.  Jerry, at age 85, says he is a perfect example of ”You don’t have to be a good golfer to enjoy golf.” 

Congratulations Jerry on being named our latest Spotlight Golfer, and thanks for all you have done for us here in Grand Haven, both on and off the golf course!