JERRY BLOW
NYACK HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF 1978

Home was a moving target for Jerry Blow. He attended four different school districts in junior high and high school, lived in a group home and with friends for various spells, and endured an unsettled family environment while growing up in Rockland.

But there’s one place he indisputably felt right at home: the track. From Spring Valley to Nanuet to Clarkstown South to Nyack, Jerry motored past one outclassed foe after another and staked his claim as one of the greatest sprinters in Rockland County history.

NY State Champ, 9-time County & Section 9 Champ,
9 County Records

His list of honors is long and impressive. He won the New York State 60-yard dash title indoors and was 100-meter runner-up outdoors in 1978. He earned nine Rockland County championships, including the 100-yard crown four straight years and the 60-yard dash twice. Jerry set five individual County records, four of them in the 60, and ran on four record-setting relays. He won nine Section 9 class titles, including three at 100 yards, and eight State Qualifier races, including three in the 60. Jerry also was an Eastern States silver medalist in the 60 and 100 yards.

Known for his hair-trigger start, Jerry led off Nyack’s state runner-up 880 relay in ’77 – a unit that set the County and Section 9 record of 1:28.9 at the State Qualifier. That record remained on the books for 30 years, until 2007.

Broke 10 Seconds for 100 Yards
More Than Any Other Rocklander

Jerry also ran on the Indians’ third-place 4×200 in the 1978 State meet, and finished third in the 60 his freshman year. He broke or tied the state freshman 60-yard record three times and dipped under 10 flat in the 100 yards more times than any other Rockland sprinter. His personal bests also continue to rank high on the all-time County lists: 9.6 for 100 yards, tied for second; 10.5 for 100 meters, third; 6.2 for 60 yards, tied for third; and 21.9 for 220.

Taking Up Track As A Healthy Outlet

Jerry got started in track “by accident,” he recalls. As a Spring Valley Junior High seventh grader, he got into
trouble one day and was told he should take up a high-energy activity like track as a constructive outlet. So he gave up baseball, a more passive sport, and opted for the sprinting events in track. An immediate success in the 100-yard dash, he continued his blossoming running career after transferring to Nanuet Junior High, where he thrived under the tutelage of his first true track coach, Colin Minga.

From Nanuet to Clarkstown South to Nyack

Jerry spent part of the winter season his freshman year at Nanuet before the school district realigned its borders and he ended up at Clarkstown South. The Vikings were only too happy to accept a sprinter of his enormous talents and Jerry starred for South through his sophomore year, after which he moved to the Nyack school district for his last two years. Joining the Indians’ tradition-rich sprints corps turned out to be an ideal match for his abilities, but the initial transition proved challenging. Fortunately, the track team’s statistician, Hope Johnson, helped ease the
transition immensely, Jerry says.

“I’m a very shy person, and here I was going to yet another high school, about to become teammates with
someone I had been strong rivals with,” says Jerry, whose chief nemesis was soon-to-be-teammate Otto Pearson. “Hope broke down barriers for me meeting people at the high school. She smoothed the waters and made it easy for me.”

Unsettled Home Life

Jerry thrived both on the track and in school – he graduated with honors from Nyack – despite some tenuous family conditions. Besides living in a group home in Haverstraw for a while, he also was sheltered by Dr. Art Lebofsky, one of his coaches at Clarkstown South, and the family of Bill Aney, who was the stepfather of Dave Coffey, his best friend and teammate at Nyack.

“When I was having difficulties in my junior and senior year, they took me in and I lived with them,” he says with gratitude. “Without these compassionate people, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my education. They helped me keep my head on straight to compete and provided a stable environment to allow me to excel in school. I never would have made it to college without their help.”

Jerry appreciated Lebofsky’s positive and encouraging attitude at a time when he needed direction in his life. “Number one, he was a great coach. Number two, he was a great educator, helping me to understand that you need to keep a balance, to have strength of mind with strength of body. And number three, he was a great advocate for the academic development of minority students.”

Excelling at West Point

Jerry received an appointment to West Point and competed with distinction for the Black Knights for three-plus years. He set a school record in the 60-meter dash in his sophomore year, and set the 60-meter dash record, 6.64
seconds (converted from 6.4 hand-timed), in the Army-Navy indoor meet. Forty-five years later, it’s still the meet record! Jerry also won the 100 at the Heptagonal Championships in 10.73, ran a 200 leg on Army’s winning sprint medley relay in the IC4A division at the 1980 Penn Relays, and traveled to Europe to compete on a combined Army-Princeton team against national squads in Ireland and England.

Sprinters can sometimes have a chip on their shoulder and Jerry likes to tell the story of his vanquishing a competitor who hadn’t shown him the proper respect. Nyack had no indoor track program until 1978, when Jerry spearheaded a group that petitioned the Nyack school board to start a program. The effort succeeded, and Jerry relished the
opportunity to challenge defending champion Frank Kelly of Westfield, NJ, in the 60-yard dash at the West Point
Invitational. Sure enough, Jerry handed Kelly a rare defeat and set a Rockland and Section 9 record (6.3) in the process. Jerry’s satisfaction continued when he competed for Army and Kelly for Navy. “I beat him like a drum,” Jerry says, most notably when he set the Army-Navy indoor record at Navy, Kelly’s home turf.

After three successful and rewarding years at Army, Jerry suffered serious misfortune in the summer before his
senior year. He fractured spinal vertebrae in a car accident and could not receive the required medical approval to earn his military commission. Jerry completed his college education at St. Thomas Aquinas, which accepted his credits from West Point. He graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

Distinguished Career in Banking

Jerry had a long career with Bank of America, where he held a series of senior executive roles including
serving as the operations executive and risk executive for the Customer Service function for the company. He later
became the global real estate executive for technology, leading a team that managed the second-largest real estate portfolio in the United States.

Jerry’s last role with Bank of America was as senior vice president, global payments risk, responsible for ensuring the safe and legal transfer of $2.8 trillion daily via the bank’s payments system. He first retired in 2018, then took on a new opportunity to be the chief operating officer for a medical chain based in Texas. After a successful acquisition, he retired the second time in 2021.

Value of a STEM Education and Selfless Mentors

In 2010, Jerry was invited by Art Lebofsky to speak to the assembled members of the Albert Einstein Congressional Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Lebofsky, who had been
Science Department chair in the Clarkstown schools and coordinator of math and science in the Nyack schools, chaired a symposium celebrating the 20th year of the fellowship, of which he was the founding member, and
developing recommendations for education legislation.

Jerry’s well-received presentation wove his personal narrative into the value of a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. “STEM education is not sexy for young kids to learn, but STEM skills are applicable to the business environment, and you can earn a good living applying those skills,” says Jerry, who has six business patents to his credit. “Every job I had was math-based. All those skills were integral to my success at the bank.”

Jerry also spoke about the value of mentoring, the impact of educators and coaches in his life, and the importance of those who helped him mature as an athlete and student. “These are the people who powered me to success in track and field,” says Jerry, a 2010 Rockland County Track & Field Hall of Fame inductee. “The lessons I learned in Rockland are the lessons I used in my adult life. Just one degree here or one degree there, and my life would have gone in a different direction.”

Jerry, who turns 65 in June 2025, now lives in McKinney, Texas, with his wife of 23 ½ years, Stacey. He has two stepsons, Jason Thomas, an entrepreneur, and Justin Smith, a firefighter in Fort Worth, as well as three grandchildren: grandsons Roman and Tucker, and granddaughter Arlee.

For young student-athletes who may be battling some tough circumstances in their lives, Jerry has some sound advice distilled from personal experience: “Even if you’re going through difficult times, you can end up in a different place from where you started. Despite the challenges, you can succeed.”