There is a wonderful article highlighting Gerald’s career and accomplishments at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Shapiro_(writer)
Gerald David Shapiro, of Lincoln, died October 15, 2011, at Bryan East Hospital in Lincoln of cardiac arrest. Gerry was born August 23, 1950 in Kansas City, Kan. and for the past twenty-five years taught at UNL, where he was a Willa Cather Professor of English, specializing in creative writing and Jewish American fiction. He was the author of three books of fiction, From Hunger, Bad Jews, and Little Men, and edited an anthology, Jewish American Fiction, published by the University of Nebraska Press. At the time of his death, he had just completed his fourth book of fiction, a collection of stories entitled In the Jewish Cemetery.
Gerry was admired and beloved for his generosity of spirit, his gift for making and keeping friends, and his incomparable and indomitable sense of humor. He was known as a great teacher, mentor, and listener; his students often wrote him, even years after they graduated, to tell him how much his classes had inspired them and changed their lives. He will always be alive to those of us who knew and loved him. As we go through our days, we will remember Gerry's integrity, his bright wit, his loyalty, his vibrancy and passion for life.
He is survived by his wife Judith Slater of Lincoln; his brother, Neil Shapiro, and sister-in-law, Maureen Gorman Shapiro, of Chicago, and his half brother, John Spitzburg, and his wife, Grace Sharokh, of Asheville, N.C.
Donations may be made in Gerry's name to the American Heart Association or to Ashland Supportive Housing, an organization that provides housing and community outreach for developmentally disabled adults, P.O. Box 3536, Ashland, OR 97520.
Paul Wilson
Gerry might have had a slight stutter in high school but he was smart and very creative. A great artist as I recall. We spent a fair amount of time together. Paul Wilson
Dennis Bowman
Yes, Gerry had a bad stutter in his speech all the way through school. In later years, he totally beat the stuttering. I chatted with him by phone, back around 2006 and asked him how he beat stuttering. He said as much as anything, it was having to get up and speak publicly a gazillion times as an English Professor at the University of Nebraska. Gerry was a gifted artist as well as writer and read everything he could get his hands on. I remember hanging out with him at his house and his walls were lined with book shelves...hundreds of books, many of them novels, and he had read every one of them--he was sixteen years old at the time. No wonder he was so brilliant and analytical in his thinking. He brought a lot to the table in his writing, over the years, and was a published author many times over. I'm so glad we were friends from kindergarten right on through adulthood. I'm sure you can tell I miss him.