Jerome "Jerry" John Nielsen

Jerome John “Jerry” Nielsen, of Fairhope, died Thursday, March 24, 2022, at home. He was 77. Jerry was born in Grinnell, Iowa, on Aug. 27, 1944, and moved to Decatur, Georgia, as a child. He graduated from Georgia State University and then earned his master’s degree in archaeology at the University of Alabama. He was an expert in Southeastern archaeology. Over the next 20 years, he served as the senior archaeologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cultural resources program, collecting and preserving the stories of the native peoples in archaeological sites including the Panama Canal and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Later he worked in the Caribbean and around the Southeast, preserving the cultural heritage of the area. He married Ann English Clark in 1979, and they built a life together in Fairhope. Family always came first for him. Jerry loved people and the front yard was a gathering spot where all were welcome. He was a great listener, always ready to hear a story. He enjoyed projects and believed in working to build what you wanted. Instead of obstacles, he saw possibilities. For Jerry, character was about how you treated others, not about your job or the letters after your name. He was more likely to trade for something he wanted than to buy it, and a piece of jewelry or an antique with a story was worth even more. Vacations centered around spending time with family and friends, sometimes in a camper out West, sometimes a spur-of-the-moment car trip to the beach, or sometimes helping dig out after a disaster. He was loved very much by everyone he knew. He is survived by his wife, Ann; daughter, Christa (Alex), of Lake Charles, Louisiana; and son, Michael (Sara), of Chesapeake, Virginia; grandchildren, Thomas, Hailey, Kara and Elizabeth; and many friends. Services will be held Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at 2:00pm at the Fairhope chapel of Wolfe-Bayview Funeral Home. Visitation with the family will be one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the USO at www.donations@uso.org.