Jerry McCoy 

July 12,1951 -May 20, 2019

Jerry passed away May 20th, 2019 joining his mom and dad back in spirit.

50 years ago, less than eight weeks after graduation on July 4th Jerry dove off his folk's dock into the water on the Lake of the Ozarks, as his friend Steve West and his younger sister Cathy casually looked on.  After he was pulled from the water and revived, it was discovered that he had somehow broken his neck when he hit the water, leaving him no feeling below his chest.  At that time the Dr. told him that he would probably live with this  condition for 5 years and that was 45 years ago. He spent 2 years in rehab in Des Moines.. After that he moved to Florida with his family.   His parent bought some rides and games in the early 70's and traveled the carnival circuit for 4 years but life on road was hard on his body so he moved back to Iowa. He attended DMACC  and graduated at the top of his class in two years with a Associates Degree in Healthcare Administration.  Unfortunately, he didn't find out until after graduation that if he took a job as a nursing home administrator he would lose his Medicare insurance. 

Since he couldn't work in the field in which he was trained on an official basic, he moved to Elma, Iowa where he live in a community owned nursing home and he became the unofficial assistant administrator for an administrator that works at Riverview Manor for a short time.  

While living in Elma, he met and married his wife and after going through a brutal winter, he needed to move back to warmer weather in Florida.  His marriage ended in the late 80's when his wife wanted to have a  child more then she wanted him as a spouse.  

Despite the physical limitations of having a quadriplegic body, Jerry was dedicated to living a life fully. Imagine him sprinting and running wherever he may be.