Robert Scott Gerlach

Robert Scott Gerlach was born April 17, 1967, as the oldest child to Robert Louis Gerlach and Carol Louise McKee Gerlach. As a young man, Scott loved camping and scouting. He graduated from High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, before completing a business degree at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Scott learned to work with computers and worked as a software tester at Microsoft, Boeing, Vulcan, and other software companies in Seattle, Washington.

Genuinely caring and empathetic, Scott had a great capacity to love people of all ages and stations. Whether serving the homeless in a soup kitchen or working with a billionaire software entrepreneur, Scott treated everyone with the same dignity and deference. As our mother’s health deteriorated, he was with her continually, taking calls and visiting at all hours of the day on a moment’s notice, caring for her home, and working tirelessly to help her as she battled cancer. During those visits, he got to know the caregivers and residents on a first-name basis and their stories.

Scott suffered with poor health throughout his life. Born with Kleinfelter’s Syndrome, his body and emotions were a mix of male and female. As a teenager, he was devastated to learn he could never be a father. But as an older man, he celebrated his ability to understand and connect with both men and women emotionally, read the feelings in a room, soothe egos amid heated conflict, and speak powerful words of comfort and encouragement, which gifts he associated with his condition.

Scott passed away on March 29, 2023, at home. His mother passed away three weeks later, on his birthday. Scott is survived by a brother and two sisters: Brett Gerlach, Avalie Muhlestein, and Cheri Robinson.

Scott, we love you. Thanks for your listening, your concern, your love, and your encouragement. Thanks for your stories, your help fixing things, for always wanting to be a part of our lives. Our children will remember the card games, coin collections, stories about growing up in Minnesota, and your wonder for technology of all kinds. But most of all, they will remember how important and loved they felt when they were with you.

We miss you already.

Arrangements are made under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 S Bluff Street, St. George, Utah. 435-673-2454. Family and friends are invited to leave a memory on Scott’s obituary page at  www.spilsburymortuary.com