Gerald Roger Ingram

Gerald Roger (Jerry) Ingram passed away peacefully on Thursday February 12 at the Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield, Ohio. Jerry was the oldest child of Roiderick (Rod) and Dorothy Kain Ingram and was born in Dayton, Ohio on September 14, 1928. Jerry grew up in West Milton, Ohio and where he was captain of the football team and led a jazz band at Milton Union High School. Upon graduation in 1946 he enrolled at Ohio University where he met the love of his life, Wilma Virginia (Billie) Munn, whom he married in 1950. Jerry served in the Marines at Cherry Point Marine Air Station from 1948 to 1952 before moving to Los Angeles and Three Lakes Wisconsin, before settling in Grove City, Ohio and began work at North American Aviation (later Rockwell International) as a structural engineer.

Jerry was a man of many interests and talents. In Grove City he served on City Council and was an early participant in the Little Theatre Off-Broadway community theatre group. He exercised his musical talents as a member of the Columbus Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Propagation of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in the United States. But his true love was flying. He was an active member of the Experimental Aircraft Association and on weekends he restored and flew a 1948 Stinson Flying Station Wagon. As an adult he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Franklin University and upon retirement from Rockwell International he and Billie moved to Comer, Georgia. Using Jerry’s final college project as a business plan they opened Abbeville Books in nearby Abbeville, South Carolina. In Georgia Jerry continued to explore new interests by raising and riding Morab horses and serving on the board of the Madison County Public Library.

After Billie’s death in 2005, Jerry moved to the Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield, Ohio. He remained engaged in aviation by helping restore a B-17 bomber at the Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana, Ohio, and as a guide at the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton—where he served until November 2025. He was also an active member of the Unity of Dayton Spiritual Center, and was square dancing several times a week until the Covid pandemic.

Jerry is survived by his son William Gregory Ingram (Ann) of Durham, North Carolina, his daughter Elizabeth Joyce Anfinson (Tim) of Hull, Georgia, and grandchildren Christine Elizabeth Larcom Ingram (Neal Petrosky) of Wilmington, North Carolina, David Paul Henry Ingram of Durham, North Carolina, and Laura Esther Anfinson Schweitzer (Richard) of Ft. Collins Colorado. The family is planning a memorial service to be held on Saturday, April 25 at the Ohio Masonic Home. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Jerry’s memory to the Unity of Dayton Spiritual Center https://unityofdayton.org/, the Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana, Ohio https://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org, the Durham Technical Community College Foundation https://www.durhamtech.edu/durham-tech-foundation Ingram Family Scholarship fund, or the charity of your choice. The family also thanks the Assisted Living staff at the Ohio Masonic Home and the caregivers at Affinity Care of Ohio.