Fidelco Guide Dog client Gerry and his guide dog Devyn share insight on cars, coffee and dogs! Take a listen to our interview below!
Gerald Leary
Blind since birth, Gerry, a Boulder CO resident, has never let his visual challenge prevent him from attaining his goals. He partnered with his first Fidelco guide dog, “Devyn” in 2018 and previously worked with Labrador guide dogs.
Gerry had a huge interest in cars growing up, and his dad, an auto mechanic, taught him while working on cars in their home garage. Gerry used his highly developed sense of hearing to determine when a car’s noises indicated a mechanical problem and then made the needed repairs. Despite the challenge of becoming a car mechanic, Gerry worked in that field for 40 years.
After his many years as a mechanic, Gerry decided to follow a different path-- become a master coffee roaster. His interest in coffee began after visiting a San Francisco café in 1994. When he couldn’t secure an apprenticeship in the coffee business locally due to his vision loss, he travelled to San Francisco and trained at the West Coast Specialty Coffee Company. After returning home, Gerry began roasting with a tiny roaster in a shed in his back yard. Despite the inherent challenge of not being able to see the coffee beans he selected and the roasting process, he worked diligently, creating a log of each roasting trial and used the sound and smell of the roasting beans to perfect his craft.
Initially selling quarter pound bags of his coffee to friends, Gerry founded his specialty coffee roasting facility, “The Unseen Bean”, in 2003 and then opened two coffee shops. He later partnered with two Italian coffee lovers to open a new coffee roasting facility which sells (including online) over 20 varieties of coffee and coffee-related products (mugs and chocolate coffee bars) to retail and wholesale customers. According to The Unseen Bean’s website, Gerry is believed to be the only blind coffee roaster in the world!