Deceased November 19, 2020
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In Memory
Jerry Wilkoff—gracious, private, genial and urbane—died in November 2020. A longtime resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., Jerry had his last address in Paradise Valley. He grew up in Pittsburgh, graduated from Shady Side Academy and entered Amherst as an only child who had always lived in a hotel.
I first knew Jerry as the mellifluous voice of WAMF and marveled that he had outwitted the frosh strictures of “three in a double” and “no cars on campus,” managing to live in a Valentine suite and drive an Oldsmobile. I joined him on one of his “Anyone for the Yankee Pedlar?” trips when Valentine offered mystery meat. Memorable.
We were classmates at Harvard Business School and the U.S. Army Finance School. Puzzled over his assignment to “Camp Odia,” Jerry learned he had been chosen to become the French-proficient aide in the American embassy in Cambodia.
After two years of very hot work, Jerry returned to civilian life in retail ready-to-wear, first with a startup that named itself “J. Crew” after the group of young employees Jerry led, then with a prominent retailer that chose Jerry to launch its presence in Scottsdale—another hot spot.
Jerry lived there for the rest of his life. He stayed in retail, starting his own business, As Is, AZ—buying from the best department stores expensive gowns that had been worn once (or never) and then returned. Jerry resold them to boutiques in a network he had built nationwide, largely by phone in his velvet WAMF voice.
Jerry never married. His survivors are all of us and his many other friends, including my Scottsdale grandchildren, who loved the way he always treated them as adults and were intrigued by his Rolls-Royce—and the Bentley convertible he kept garaged, in reserve. A good man, with style.
Rich Gray ’53