Gerry Kocken is an architect in DePere, Wisconsin. He has been active in the Neville Public Museum Astronomical Society in Green Bay, Wisconsin since 1999. He has been on the Board of Directors for 10 years while occupying the Vice President post for 2 years and President for 7 years. He was also a Vice Chairman of the North Central Region of the Astronomical League for between 2005 and 2007 and the Chairman of the region from 2007 through 2011. He also is the Chair for the Public Outreach Programs for his club, Chairperson for the club equipment and is in charge of obtaining outreach material. He also maintains the Parmentier Observatory which includes a classical 30” cassegrain telescope and a 6” Astro-Physics, building maintenance and grounds maintenance. He is also an active member of the Nightsky Network and is the main contact person for the organization.
Gerry runs a telescope workshop at this office every Tuesday night, since 2001 which includes mirror grinding, building telescopes, repairing telescopes, cleaning and collimation of telescopes, testing optics, teaching users how to use their scopes, star party education, refurbishing telescopes and does viewing when the weather permits. His workshop is open to the public. Everything he does at the workshop is free including telescope maintenance. He has had over 150 scopes come through his workshop in the last 11 years.
