PERRY HALL, MD—A Perry Hall icon has passed.

On Monday afternoon, Gerald Soukup died at 92 years of age.

“Jerry” Soukup helped found the Perry Hall Recreation Council in 1955.

Since its founding, Jerry Soukup was a member of the Perry Hall Recreation Council, serving first as vice president, then as the president since 1988.

For decades, he and his wife, Pat, raised money from concession stand sales and events for a gymnasium to house the organization’s sports leagues. Jerry & Pat Soukup raised $1.5 million to cover half the cost of the project.

That gym, Soukup Arena, opened in 2015 and was named in their honor.

“We have lost so many of the local leaders who guided Perry Hall during the postwar years,” said Councilman David Marks on Monday. “Jerry’s service began when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House and continued to the present. On behalf of all whose lives he touched, we thank him. My prayers are with his family and many friends.”