Jerry Bierbower
Class of 1959
A product of Grantham, PA, Jerry graduated from MHS in 1959. After high school, he served in the U.S. Navy where he learned the electrical trade, then secured a job with Heim Electric in Harrisburg, but he gave up his position with that company to move to Montana for a short time where he pursued his interest in hunting Big Horn Sheep. He shot his first sheep in 1977 and began his quest for the Ovis World Slam, a major achievement in which a hunter takes twelve different species or subspecies of world sheep. Few hunters have ever accomplished the Ovis World Slam. In order to accomplish this lofty goal, Jerry moved to Alaska where he worked on the Alaskan pipeline, and in his spare time pursued and shot seven more Dall sheep. Jerry's quest for the Ovis took him to Mongolia, Nepal, Dagestan, Tajikistan, Russia, Spain, Tibet and Iran to bag exotic species of sheep. After Jerry moved from Alaska to British Columbia, Canada, where he purchased a 160 acre spread and built a new house himself, he continued to hunt for goats, stone sheep, and ibex, both locally and abroad. In addition to the exciting life Jerry led as a sportsman, his work experiences took him to faraway places. Toward the end of Jerry's work career, he was employed on oil rigs in the Caspian and South China Seas.

Most of the animals Jerry bagged were mounted and preserved life-size, and many of them have since been donated to the Oakes Natural History Museum at Messiah College, founded in 2003. Jerry's donation is significant, not just due to the value of the trophies, but when one considers that he paid all the transportation, license and mounting costs out of his own pocket, this generous act of philanthropy becomes even greater. Jerry has given the museum one of the best public displays of wild sheep and wild goats anywhere, and the animals have been arranged by the relative elevations at which they lived. In addition, moose, Kodiak Island brown bear, and a wolverine are among other trophy mounts given to the museum by Jerry. Thanks in large part to his gift, the museum's display has become a valuable teaching tool for many school groups.

Jerry is recognized as a true world class sportsman by those who have accompanied him on hunts and those who have listened to his stories about his climbs and stalks of wild animals. While his expertise as a sportsman for several decades is recognized world-wide, Jerry is also deserving of the title "philanthropist" for his unselfish contribution of mounted animals to the Oakes Museum, sharing them with future generations and inspiring interest in natural history.

Jerry resides in Shoup, Idaho with his wife, Nancy. He has two daughters. Beth lives in Washington and has three children, and Michelle lives in Anchorage, Alaska and has one child.

back