JERRY DORVAN GILLEY

On Monday, March 16, 2020, Jerry Dorvan Gilley, loving husband and father of two children passed away from metastatic colon cancer at Charles George VA Medical Center Asheville at Valor Hospice at age 75.

Jerry was born in Wise, VA on Nov. 30, 1944 to Jaqueline Stone Gilley and John (Turk) Gilley. Jerry graduated from J.J. Kelly High school in 1963 and joined the Air Force, stationed at Travis Air Force Base and in Saigon, Vietnam during the war. He married Mary Alice Rakes Gilley in 1968 and completed his degree in Architecture at Clemson University in 1973. 

He is survived by daughters Emily Rachel Gilley and Susannah Day Gilley. He is preceded in death by his wife Mary Alice who passed from metastatic breast cancer in 2008. 

Jerry was an artist and outdoorsman. While working at architecture firms such as Six Associates in Asheville; Tarleton and Tankersly in Greenville, SC; or in his partnership with Charles Macelroy in Wise, VA; he was always painting, building model airplanes, and camping, hiking, and fishing. He was an avid hobbyist and collected antique weapons and built replica black powder rifles.  He tied flies for fly fishing and loved to camp out on the southeast coast. 

Jerry was the funniest person you'd ever meet. He never forgot a joke he'd heard and would always have one ready to make you smile.  He loved animals and always had a dog or a cat to spoil rotten.  He never met a stranger and loved telling stories to anyone he got a chance to talk to.  

Jerry passed during the covid-19 pandemic; therefore, services are to be held at a later date.  He was a member of Solid Rock Old Regular Baptist Church in Clintwood, VA and there will be a memorial there TBA.