Gerald Schwertfeger Obituary

Gerald Chandler
Schwertfeger
BOSTON, MA - Gerald Chandler Schwertfeger, 71, died at his home in Boston, MA from brain cancer on December 1, 2015 while listening to his favorite music and with his husband holding his hands. Jerry was born July 13, 1944 in Oak Ridge, TN, the son of Jean and Tony Schwertfeger, who worked at the Savannah River Plant.
Jerry graduated from Aiken High School in 1962. He attended Haverford College and earned his BA in 1966. He received his MA in 1969 and his Ph.D. in 1977, from Brandeis in political science.
Jerry worked at Widener Library at Harvard University, where he was Head of Stacks and Tracings in Access Services.He retired after 25 years of service at Harvard.
His leisure activity also encompassed Asian art, which led him to travel to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
He met the man who became his husband, Zongxi (Bryan) Li in 1999. They enjoyed working together in their beautiful home garden. They traveled extensively throughout China and the United States. Jerry's other interest included volcanology, which took them to Hawaii, especially to Kauai to enjoy the National Tropical Botanical Garden. In the last several decades he has become an aficionado of American and European art tiles. He made lots of friends with collectors in California and also in Germany and the Netherlands.
Despite his tremendous enthusiasm for the arts, his greatest passion was for human rights. For this reason, the family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorials for him go to the ACLU.
Besides his husband, Bryan Li, Jerry is survived by his sister, Ann, and her husband, Jeff Lundberg, of Ridgefield, CT; a niece, Christine, her husband Brian Dyer, and a great-niece, Robin Ann, who live in Vina del Mar, Chile; and a nephew, Mark Johnson, his wife Putra, and a great-niece, Aria, of Brooklyn, NY.