- Gerald died on Saturday, 10 August 2013.
He was born on 12 May 1921 at Ogden, Utah to Clarence F. and L. Pauline Malan Waterfall.
He spent his youth in Ogden and was schooled at Madison Elementary, Central Jr. High and Ogden Sr. High school, graduating in 1939. His freshman and sophomore years were spent at California Institute of Technology and Brigham Young University. As students who were also members of the Utah National Guard were drafted into the U.S. Army in early 1941, he decided to enroll in the new mechanic learner program that the Army Air Corps had announced in preparation of staffing Hill Air Force Base, which was under construction at that time. Although he was deferred in the national draft, he left his supervisory position at Hill Air Force Base and joined the Navy early in 1945 where he served as an aviation electronics technician, first class, at the Alameda Air Station until six months after the end of World War II.
After his military service he attended the University of Utah and graduated in 1948 with a BS in electrical engineering. He spent the next twenty years in management of the Waterfall Construction Co. During that time he was tested and was rewarded with a Professional Civil Engineer license in both Utah and Washington. In 1968 he was solicited by the Federal Aviation Agency division in Salt Lake City to join their Airway Facilities branch as a Civil Engineer. He worked there until 1971 when the Salt Lake division was closed. He was then transferred to the new Seattle Regional Airports division as their Electrical Engineer, and worked there until he retired in 1986 except for an eight year period when he was at the FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C. There he worked with manufacturers of hardware for airport lighting and visual guidance systems to develop more efficient and effective equipment. He also revised many of the technical specifications to accommodate modernization and improvement in lighting systems in airports across the United States.
He married Clara Tillotson, of Ogden, Utah on 9 September 1942, in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of Stephen Mark Waterfall. During his 64th year of a wonderful marriage with Clara, she passed on. On 30 October 2006, Gerald was united in marriage with E. Bernita Tanner McCarthy. She is the mother of a large posterity. This gave Gerald a wonderful experience to meet and establish a connection with many wonderful and talented people.
Throughout his life, Gerald was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in six bishoprics in Utah and Washington wards, being the ordained Bishop in one of them. He served on the High Council in the Annandale Virginia Stake, and as the Stake Patriarch in the Suitland Maryland and Bellevue Washington Stakes. He officiated in the Washington D.C. Temple and then in the Seattle Temple for a total of seventeen years. He loved the Lord and served in many other Stake and Ward positions during his lifetime and was always one to provide service to others.
Gerald loved photography as a hobby. His interest in photography began in 1937 when he was given a camera to record a trip to Washington D.C. for the first National Boy Scout Jamboree. For most of the time since then he has had a dark room to process and print his own photos. He has sought additional knowledge and technique from educational and professional sources. His most enjoyable experience was in spending two summer sessions with Ansel Adams at Yosemite. Other hobbies have been collecting mint sheets of U.S. stamps and coins, and in remembering friends and family with birthday greeting cards.
Gerald is survived by his loving wife, Bernita, son, Stephen (Wendy) Waterfall, brothers, Clarence (Margaret) Waterfall and Roger (Jari) Waterfall, step-children, Delwin (Kay) McCarthy, Nora (Ron) Barlow, Lynn (Sharon) McCarthy, Arlene (Kent) Goates, and Marvin (Bonnie) McCarthy, a granddaughter, Michelle Waterfall, 36 step-grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, 71 step-great-grandchildren, two great, great-grandchildren and one step-great, great-grandchild.
He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister (Ruth), his first wife, Clara, and a granddaughter (Monica).
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, August 14, 2013 at 2 p.m. at the Ogden Forest Green Ward building located at 1401 Country Hills Drive (4200 South), Ogden, Utah. A viewing will be held on the evening of Tuesday, August 13, 2103, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Leavitt's Mortuary, 836 36th Street, Ogden Utah and at the church on Wednesday one hour prior to the services. Interment will be at Aultorest Memorial Park, 836 36th Street, Ogden, Utah.
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Waterfall Family History
1921 - 2012 (91 years) 
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