Gerald Berger was born on February 7, 1929 in Mobile, Alabama. On June 5, 1955, he married Joan Robinson in Lufkin, Texas, at the Angelina Hotel. Joan was born on June 21, 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, and moved to Lufkin, Texas, when she was 6 years old.

Gerry graduated from the University of Alabama with a BS in Biology in 1949. He graduated from the University of Alabama Dental School in 1954. After serving as a Captain in the United States Air Force at Lackland AFB, Texas, from 1954 until 1956, he opened a dental practice in Mobile, Alabama. He continues that dental practice today, and, as of 1998, it is the 4^th oldest dental practice in Mobile.

Joan attended the University of Texas, and is a homemaker in Mobile.