July 15, 1931- January 6, 2025
Gertrude A. Shearer, age 93, passed away peacefully on Monday, January 6, 2025, at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara, CA. She was born July 15, 1931, in Decorah Iowa, to Willard and Emma Torgrim. She was a graduate of Iowa State University. She married James W. Shearer on August 18, 1956 at the Washington Prairie Lutheran Church in Decorah. They moved west to Albuquerque, New Mexico and started their family. After stops in Yuma, Seattle, Culver City, and San Carlos, they settled in Los Altos, CA in the home where they raised their three children. Gertrude began taking computer programming courses at De Anza College in the early 1970’s, eventually using her new skills to find work at Lockheed Martin as a programmer. Gert was an avid camper and hiker and frequently took her family up to the mountains on ski trips in an old station wagon with very used ski equipment. Gert loved tennis and having 12 tennis courts at Los Altos High School behind the family home worked out just fine. In later years she began to travel and see the world. Mexico, Canada, Norway, Italy, Turkey, and Cuba were a few of the far off lands she experienced with either family or close friends. Gert was preceded in death by her sister Joanne, her ex-husband Jim, and eldest daughter Joanne. She is survived by her brother Willard, daughter Susan and her husband Franz, son David, and two grandchildren Max and Elise.
