Bernard Jack Gershen was born on May 6, 1931. He was the eldest child of Rose (née Turner) and Harry (Yechiel) Gershen. His younger brother was Kenneth. Everyone knew him as Bernie.

He grew up in Brooklyn, first on Dahill Road and then Bedford Avenue. Bernie would often take things apart and then try to put them back together. His lifelong love of tinkering started with models.

He attended the City College of New York, where he and his friends threw a party together one evening. Shirley Rothman and her friend, Lorraine Adlerstein, attended together. When Lorraine said she was leaving early, Shirley suddenly didn’t have a ride. So, Bernie volunteered, “I have a car.” They started dating and he was drafted into the Army for the Korean War. But he had such poor eyesight that he was never sent overseas. He spent time in New Jersey and Texas while in the army and was more than happy to get out and return to his beloved Shirley. They were married in Brooklyn on Christmas Day, 1955. They drove to the Smoky Mountains for their honeymoon, starting a lifelong love of traveling together. In 1959 their son Howard arrived.

When Howard was a few months old, they briefly lived in Kokomo, Indiana so Bernie could get job training. Kokomo was a lot different from New York, but they still managed to make lifelong friends there. They returned back East, moving to Passaic and then Edison, New Jersey. Bernie worked in several places, including Dumont Labs and Harmon Karden. Their daughter Janet arrived in 1962. In 1966, he received his first patent. In 1967, Bernie started to work for General Electric, and the family moved to Pennsylvania. While living in King of Prussia, Bernie went to Germany for his work. He and Shirley decided that, if he had a trip that coincided with summer vacation, a business trip would be extended to a family vacation. In 1969, the planets aligned, and the family went to Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, and France. The family shared a vacation with the Boroff family from synagogue. The Gershen crew drove a popup camper across the country, visiting a lot of the heartland, including stops to see old friends in Kokomo.

Bernie became a professional engineer, and he received his Master’s from Widener University in 1972. Also in 1972, Bernie started to work for Leviton Manufacturing, and the family moved to Centerport, New York, on Long Island. At home, he was the funny dad, the one who would put food coloring in pancakes when either of the kids was having a sleepover. At Leviton, he was the tall guy with a bowtie who was always telling jokes and always tinkering with something or other. Leviton was where Bernie’s creativity truly flourished, and he was awarded several more patents, in particular as the part-inventor of the Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI). If you have an appliance with a plug or an outlet that shows where you can reset it, those are Ground Fault Interrupters. If your appliance or any plug is ever in a situation where you could be electrocuted, the GFI will cut the power, thereby saving your life.

Changes came, as they do to everyone. Howard started Columbia University. Janet started Boston University. The nest was emptying out. Bernie and Shirley settled into their life together as their children found their way. But more changes were coming.

In 1992, Shirley and Bernie welcomed a new addition to the family, son-in-law Jay Siegel. In 1994, they welcomed daughter-in-law Donna Shakin. Bernie and Shirley always treated Donna and Jay like two more of their own children. In 1995, Janet and Jay moved to Boston, to a century-old Victorian that needed newer wiring. It was a new place for Bernie to tinker. Later that year, the family grew even more, as the greatest grandson in the history of all grandsons arrived, Adam Gershen. The following year brought with it Shirley's retirement. Bernie worked a bit longer, mainly training and mentoring younger engineers. This included one last patent in 2007, when consulting for a company that sold Christmas tree lights. In all, Bernie received over 50 patents over the course of four decades.

Howard, Donna, and Adam moved to Maryland, sealing the deal on another place to travel to. But retirement travel wasn’t just domestic. Bernie and Shirley went to Singapore, Israel, and Scotland. They also traveled to Alaska. In 2014, they moved into a smaller place in Huntington Station on Long Island. Then in 2021, they moved to Ring House in Rockville, Maryland. Shirley passed away in 2023. In 2025, Bernie moved to the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington.

He was generous to family and to charity. He told numerous jokes and particularly enjoyed wordplay. He was, in the words of his beloved nieces, Meredith and Heather, “the strongest fixer”. During his well-lived life of over nine decades, he left a mark on everyone he met. There's no telling how many lives he saved.

He is survived by his son Howard, daughter-in-law Donna, grandson Adam, daughter Janet, son-in-law Jay, sister-in-law Linda, as well as cousins, nieces, and a nephew.

In his memory, his family hopes you will befriend someone who’s lonely, invent something new, take stuff apart, put it back together, or make some green pancakes.

Services will be held Sunday, February 15, 2026, 10:30am, at the Garden of Remembrance Memorial Chapel, with burial to follow at Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park - 14321 Comus Rd, Clarksburg, MD 20871.

Memorial contributions may be made to Suffolk Y JCC (syjcc.org) or the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington (shalomdc.org).