Obituary of Jerry Gulbas
Jerry Gulbas, 96, of Glastonbury, passed away peacefully in his home on August 15, surrounded by beloved family members.
Jerry was born on January 16, 1930, in the Baluty district in Łódź, Poland to Edward and Felicia Gulbas (nee Levin). He had one older sister, Frances Gulbas Terkeltaub.
Jerry was a Holocaust survivor. His family fled when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. They hid in the woods during the day and walked at night, crossing the nearly frozen Bug River on a farmer’s rickety pontoon bridge in darkness to reach the Soviet Union. There, they were picked up by Soviet border troops and eventually taken by train with other Jewish refugees to the Ural Mountains. Even though he was still a child, Jerry worked in a factory during WWII. In 1946, the family returned to Łódź to find that no one from their Jewish community remained, but they were welcomed by their Polish friends and neighbors. Jerry later served in the Polish army and worked as a truck driver.
In 1956, the family moved to Israel where Jerry served in the Israeli army. In September 1962, he married Nina Krakowska after they had known each other for only a few weeks. They lived in Holon, where their first child, Ilana, was born 10 months later.
When Nina was 8 months pregnant with their 2nd child, with few belongings and fewer assets, the family moved to a tiny apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, NY in December 1966. Dan was born in January 1967. Ruth was born 14 months later in March 1968.
After first speaking Polish and Yiddish, Jerry learned and mastered new languages as he moved around, becoming fluent in Russian, then Hebrew, and finally English. In the US, he worked long hours as a diamond cutter in the Diamond District in Manhattan, while taking on additional work as a handyman and furniture repairman, and somehow finding the time to learn locksmithing, HVAC repair and automotive repair. Jerry and Nina were immensely proud that they were soon able to save enough money to buy a rowhouse in Flushing, Queens, where they lived for nearly 40 years.
In the 1970s, Jerry took his family to S. Vant Bungalow Colony in Monticello, NY each summer. He would drive them upstate and then go home to work during the week before returning each weekend. He was proud to be able to provide them with a summer experience outside of the city. He loved socializing with the other displaced Eastern European Jews at the colony, fishing off the pier and teaching his children to target shoot. It was virtually the only time his children saw him engage in leisure activities during their childhood.
Jerry eventually left the grueling and often dangerous (due to the constant risk of robbery) diamond cutting industry to become the chief engineer of a nursing home until his retirement in the mid-1990s. For many years thereafter, he continued to work as a handyman, first for pay and later as a favor for friends and family (traveling with his toolkit wherever he went) until finally hanging up his tools in his late 80s.
He spent his retirement years in Queens rising at 4:00 AM each day to walk his beloved watchdog, Pepper, when the potential for encountering pedestrians that Pepper might attack would be minimized, before returning home to nap for the rest of the morning.
In 2008, Jerry and Nina realized a lifelong dream when they moved into a freestanding house in Glastonbury, where he would live for the rest of his life. For the first time, they had a garage and a large basement that could comfortably accommodate his enormous collection of woodworking, plumbing, automotive and power tools.
Jerry saw the humor in life. His trademark was to answer the phone with a suspicious and heavily accented “yello.” When he recognized the voice of the caller, he inevitably burst into infectious laughter. Jerry was a prodigious giver of nicknames to friends and family members. He inexplicably nicknamed himself “Jerry the Greek” despite his Jewish ethnicity and Polish nationality. He loved showing off the tattoo of a naked woman on his forearm that was drawn with a wire hanger while he was in the Polish army, and somehow inspired women of all ages to spontaneously show him their tattoos, often in public, and regardless of the tattoo’s location. He enjoyed Polish food, breakfast at Ken’s, soup (especially at the Senior Center), vodka, herring, raw garlic, country music, mystery novels, old movies (especially Westerns and gangster movies), naps, and animals of all types (except for any dog that he did not deem tough enough to be a watchdog). Although his physical capabilities waned, he remained mentally sharp to the end of his life. Even in his final weeks, he dominated family card games.
Most of all, Jerry adored his family and they revered him. He spent countless hours enjoying meals, telling stories (especially tales of questionable accuracy regarding his father’s underworld status and his own exploits in the Polish army), teaching visitors how to swear in various languages, eliciting gossip and playing games with his nine grandchildren. When Nina began suffering from dementia, he tirelessly served as her primary caregiver, exhibiting incredible devotion and patience. In his 90s, he endured a difficult, risky procedure and subsequent daily medical maintenance to prolong his life to enable “his queen” to continue to live in their home.
Jerry leaves behind a loving family who will forever cherish his memory: his wife of over 63 years, Nina; his children, Ilana Knab and husband John of Bethesda, MD; Dan Gulbas and wife Denise of Plainview, NY; and Ruth Cohen and husband Andy, of Glastonbury; and his nine grandchildren, Ariella (Parker Lape), Melanie (fiancée, Tobit Powell), Aidan (Constance Bainbridge), Rachel (Jon Wintenburg), Jenna (fiancée, Logan Hillegas), Josh, Cassidy, Rebecca (Adam Nolan) and Talia “Ramsey.”
Although fiercely independent, Jerry graciously accepted help from caregivers who he greatly respected and appreciated. The family would like to thank the many devoted caregivers who supported him, especially Bogumila, who also served as his chief of staff, cook, barber and psychiatrist.
Friends and family are welcome to attend a Celebration of Life, which will be held on Saturday, August 29, 2026 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Riverfront Community Center, 300 Welles Street, Glastonbury, CT 06033. Sharing of memories will begin at 2:30pm. In lieu of flowers, please direct charitable donations to the North Shore Animal League at https://takeaction.animalleague.org. For online condolences, please visit www.mulryanfh.com.