A Morning with Jerry: 30 Years of Support

I felt a familiarness stepping into Jerry Wettstone's cottage for the first time. There was something about him that reminded me of my grandfather — it could have been the loud whistle he used to catch my attention (my "Gee" did that too), or the welcoming, friendly air about him, or his tall stature. In any case, I was thankful for the opportunity to sit down with Jerry and learn about his life — both personal and professional, and what he envisions for the future.

Jerry was prepared for our conversation. He'd spent some time earlier visiting the SCCLT website and had printed a few documents for me: a letter he'd written five years ago, urging his friends to join him in supporting the organization, and an article on SCCLT's history that Polly Dunn had written for the Foxdale community newsletter. He knew a little about me from the short bio on our website, and I was excited to learn more about him.

We didn't start with the Land Trust. We started with Jerry — the oldest of four kids, growing up right here in State College. His father was a legendary gymnastics coach at Penn State for 36 years, back when it filled Rec Hall and outdrew both wrestling and basketball. Jerry ran track and field at State High and at Penn State himself, though, as he pointed out with a laugh, he was a little too tall to have followed his dad into gymnastics.

After college, Jerry spent about 22 years with the Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs, running a bureau that financed grants to local governments for park acquisition and development. Ten years with the Penn State Alumni Association came next. And then, almost by accident, a third career, his favorite of the three, came along. "A neighbor said, 'Why don't you try real estate?'" He'd never sold anything in his life before that but he ended up spending 24 years at it, working almost entirely in State College with Kissinger, Bigatel & Brower.

It was that real estate background, that made Jerry one of the Land Trust's most effective early board members. He was just finishing a term on State College Borough Council when Planning Director Carl Hess and Municipal Manager Peter Marshall put the idea for SCCLT together. The new board needed three members from the community at large, three homeowners, and three appointed by Borough Council. "I said, 'Hey, I'd like to be one of the borough council representatives on the board,'" Jerry recalled. He got the appointment, served for several years, stepped away for a year or two, and came back for another term.

Once he was on the board, his firm's reach became the organization's advantage. Kissinger, Bigatel & Brower handled roughly 40 percent of the listings in town, and in weekly staff meetings, Jerry would listen for properties that might be a fit for the Land Trust — then quietly ask the listing agent for an inside track before a house ever hit the open market.

"Very few realtors were interested in doing that," he admitted. But it didn't stop him from looking elsewhere, too. He told me about one quiet day, with nothing else on his desk, when he started browsing the county's records for properties recently transferred through inheritance. He found a home on Oneida Street and called the family listed. "They said, 'Yeah, Mom just passed away, and we have no interest in the property,'" Jerry remembered. He told them about the Land Trust, the turnkey sale opportunity, and the family ended up selling for less than they'd originally been asking, relieved not to have to empty and clean the house themselves. "That was an interesting experience," he said. It's clearly one he still thinks about.

Jerry wasn't just finding houses, he was also actively involved in rehabbing them. In the Land Trust's early years, money for renovations was tight, so board members pitched in themselves. He told me about Saturdays spent cleaning up yards and painting, and about a red brick duplex whose original oak floors, installed in 1946 and never once refinished, he redid himself, drawing on experience from an earlier chapter of his life. He did the same at a property on Logan Avenue, and once recruited colleagues from his real estate firm to paint a house exterior for a Day of Caring. Listening to him, I found myself thinking about how much of that hands-on, know-your-neighbors spirit lives on in our volunteer workdays.

Jerry met his late wife, Jane, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church; her family was from town. Together, they made a bequest to SCCLT through the Centre Foundation, establishing a named endowment fund. When the Foundation offered to match gifts over $10,000, Jerry and Jane decided it was the right time to give. Jerry didn't stop there; he wrote personally to friends he knew had an interest in the Land Trust's mission, and roughly a dozen of them joined in. "[The annual distribution of the endowment fund] really does contribute that consistent, reliable income," he told me. It is money the organization can direct wherever it's needed most, whether that's payroll, rent, or a shortfall on a home renovation.

Before I left, I asked Jerry what he'd want to pass along to the next generation of SCCLT supporters and homeowners. He didn't hesitate: "I've always been a big supporter of community service. That's why I ran for borough council and served two terms. That's why I support the Land Trust." He hopes more people will think about the ways they can contribute through community service or giving, whether through the Centre Foundation and the State College Community Land Trust endowment Fund, through direct donations, or, he added, through something like a bargain sale of their own property to the Land Trust in which they offer their property at a below market value.

I feel honored to have sat across from a man who has spent a lifetime showing up for the people around him. Thirty years in, SCCLT is still standing on the work of people like Jerry: a listing tip here, a refinished floor there, a gift made in memory of a loved one. Thank you, Jerry, for all of it.