Remembrance and Celebration

For 28 years, Jerry Colbert ’64, the producer of the PBS holiday concerts, has honored our nation and glorified our freedom

 

By Rebecca Smith ’99

 

For most Americans, the Fourth of July is a relaxing day spent lazily enjoying barbecues, baseball and fireworks. But for Gerald E. “Jerry” Colbert ’64, executive producer of Capital Concerts, Inc., it is one of the two busiest days of the year. As the mastermind behind the nation’s premier Independence Day and Memorial Day concerts, Colbert spends his holidays making us better citizens.

The blessings of community

Growing up in Boylston, Mass., Colbert was imbued with a strong sense of community. He would observe Memorial Day with his family and neighbors, watching the town parade and gathering with everyone on the common to hear speeches and prayers from veterans and priests.

“Afterwards, we’d visit the graves and they’d play Taps,” he recalls. “It was always very moving.”

Years later, that desire for fellowship drew Colbert to Holy Cross.

As an athlete at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Mass., he worked out with two Crusaders at the College gym. He was so impressed by the young men’s courtesy and generosity that he passed up scholarships to other schools—namely Boston College—and enrolled at Holy Cross.
“Those guys were so nice and classy that I said to myself, ‘This is the place I want to go,’” Colbert says. “And today, the students are still nice. The sense of community and friendship is the blessing of the place.”

At Holy Cross, he immersed himself in religious activities and grew close to College chaplain, Rev. Joseph LaBran, S.J., ’38, who led him on three separate Spiritual Exercises retreats.

“Holy Cross is a formative place. It taught me a lot about life, philosophy and religion. It made me reflect on what I wanted to do with my one precious life,” recalls Colbert. “It was there that I realized that I wanted to help others.”

Making a difference

With Fr. LaBran’s encouragement, Colbert volunteered with the Jesuit Baghdad mission after graduation. His experiences teaching English and math to Iraqi schoolchildren provided him with a deep understanding of the country’s culture, politics and religion—knowledge that he draws on regularly today.

His time in Baghdad also strengthened his desire to serve others. Upon returning to the United States, Colbert married his wife, Eileen, and the couple settled on the South Side of Chicago as lay missionaries. For three-and-a-half years, they worked with gang kids, ministered to the inner-city poor and fought for civil rights during the tumultuous ’60s.

“It was an eye opener,” he says. “In retrospect, we got more than we gave.”

Out of money and ready to start a family, the Colberts moved back to Eileen’s hometown of Worcester and planned to pursue careers as administrators for lay missionary groups. But then Colbert had a life-changing idea: He realized that he could promote justice and action to millions of people at once using the medium of television. So he learned all he could about the theory and practice of television at the Center for Understanding Media in New York.

“It’s one thing to have an idea of how to reach people and make a difference,” he explains. “But it’s another thing to learn how to do it and see it through.”