Jerry W. Slavik, Sr.

Jerry W. Slavik, Sr., age 83, of Lewes, Delaware, formerly a forty-two-year resident of Wayne, passed peacefully on Saturday, January 15, 2022.

He was born in Hackensack to Jerry and Anne Slavik and was raised in Little Ferry, NJ. He graduated from the Lodi High School, where he played on the basketball team, with the Class of 1956. He attended Farleigh Dickenson College for two years before being drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War.

Jerry was honorably discharged from the Army and soon found work as a letter carrier for the US Post Office. He began his career in the Little Ferry Post Office and then transferred to the Mountain View Post Office located in Wayne. For many years he worked the Route 23 North and South mail route and was affectionately known as “Jerry the Mailman.” He worked for the US Post Office for thirty-four years before retiring in 1992. Jerry was not the kind of guy who could sit still so he worked at the Gold’s Gym in Riverdale for the next fifteen years.

He met the love of his life Concetta “Connie” Sorrento in Hackensack in 1959. The two engaged in 1960 and then married on April 22, 1961, at Mt. Virgin Church in Garfield. They started their family while living in Little Ferry and moved to Wayne in December of 1965. Their marriage was blessed with a son Jerry, and they lived in Wayne for forty-two years. They moved to Lewes, Delaware in 2010 where they have resided ever since.

Jerry will be lovingly remembered as a sincere, ‘the nicest guy”, who would always make time for people. He had a unique ability to make people feel comfortable around him. He was genuine, soft spoken, loved to talk, and would often recount stories at length and with incredible detail. Through the years he has owned over 100 cars and boats. In his younger years and to earn extra money he would buy cars, detail every inch, and re-sell them. He was somewhat of an aficionado on cars and boats. His real expertise was on Corvettes, which he owned many. He had hundreds if not thousands of auto and boat magazines that he treasured and could recite all manner of detail from them. When it came to his personal cars, he was very particular about the make, model, and the accessories of the cars he bought. They didn’t have to be the latest or greatest they just had to fit his very particular criteria. Once he found what he was looking for he would love and cherish it like it was a person. Friends and family would recount stories of how Jerry, before attaching a license plate he would wax the area that would be behind the plate then wax both sides of the plate before attaching it. Jerry’s meticulousness about his vehicles filtered down to many aspects of his life. His hedges had to be perfect, the lawn didn’t have a dandelion in site, he washed and waxed the clothes washer, dryer, and even polished the furnace in his home. He didn’t do this to be flashy – he actually lived simple and truly appreciated what he had.

Jerry was the loving husband of sixty years to Connie Slavik; devoted father of Jerry W. Slavik Jr. and his loving partner Annie McGuinness; cherished grandfather of Drew Slavik, Wade Slavik, in addition to John and Meghan Ferris and Katie Ferris.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations in Jerry’s memory to Brandywine Valley SPCA would be greatly appreciated.