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Jerald Wayne Baldwin was born in Bethany, Oklahoma on March 8, 1951 to Frank and Audie. During his childhood, his parents moved him and his older brother, Dwight, between Ponca City and Fort Worth where he began playing baseball and football and showed a talent for math. His first job was a paperboy, rising early to deliver newspapers to customers. He bought a motorcycle so he could complete his route faster, waking neighbors with its throaty growl at 4am. He may or may not have ridden this same motorcycle through the halls of East Junior High School in Ponca City. The family moved to Houston when Jerald was in ninth grade, but his heart stayed in Oklahoma, and he returned his senior year to graduate high school as a Ponca City Wildcat. He attended Bethany Nazarene College, studied accounting, and graduated from Central State in 1974. During this time, he worked as a carpenter, mechanic, and oil platform technician in the Gulf of Mexico. He wed Nancy Quinn and they had two sons, Matt and Justin. He started working as a CPA for Willard Kennedy and soon thereafter started his own firm, Baldwin and Company. He inspired his son to follow in his footsteps and together, side-by-side, they battled daily for their clients’ interests, not only in Oklahoma City, but Perry as well. He also ran Geronimo Manufacturing, an oil derrick escape device for oil workers, based out of Perry.
