Nanette Louise (Bondy) Gerth

Nanette Louise Gerth
January 21, 1933 - May 5, 2024

Beloved mother and devoted friend Nanette Louise Gerth of Newport Beach, Calif. passed away on May 5, 2024. She was born in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan in 1933 and was raised on a turkey farm in Central Michigan. The rigors of farm chores and the necessity of dealing with the “most ornery critters on Earth” (the turkeys) would prepare her well for a successful career in business.

Upon graduating from Michigan State and marrying, she headed west to Colorado to work as a Dietician in a Pueblo hospital. An offer to be Food Service Manager for a major nationwide department store chain necessitated another move to Southern California. She was later actively recruited to manage the food service staff at the State Hospital at Camarillo and it was there she learned about the management and functioning of other departments in an institutional setting. Always well-liked by her colleagues and upper management, she was promoted several times to become the Assistant Hospital Administrator. When the position of Hospital Administrator for a State-run facility for the developmentally disabled opened up, her drive, talent, intelligence, and people skills made her the natural choice for the position. This was the job she remained at until retirement.

In retirement she enjoyed the simpler pleasures in life- indulging in Reece’s peanut butter cups, honey-baked ham and caramel flan, reading Louis L’Amour novels and the Tombstone Epitaph, and watching Sunday afternoon “horse operas” with her faithful companion-a stuffed animal moose she affectionately dubbed “Morris”.

Nanette was a person of unsurpassed graciousness and empathy, kind-hearted and generous to a fault, an inspiration in times of adversity, a first-class cook, and a humble spirit who will be deeply missed by her two sons and by all others who were fortunate enough to have known her. 

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