Gerald McKerns was born in a company owned house in a coal mining “patch” named St. Nicholas located in the heart of the Pennsylvania’s anthracite “coal region”. Upon completing High School Gerald migrated to Reading, Pennsylvania were he spent nearly thirty years working in a steel mill. Although living out of the area for many years Gerald never forgot his roots. You can take the coal cracker out of the “coal region” but you can’t take the “coal region” out of a coal cracker.