‘Golden Bachelor’ Gerry Turner’s Surprising Jobs & Who He Dated Before Show
The Golden Bachelor fans have already fallen in love with Gerry Turner, the 72-year-old widower from Indiana who has quickly become a star of the Bachelor Nation franchise. But some viewers have been wondering what Turner did before he retired and became a reality TV sensation. It’s also been revealed that he had a couple of relationships in the months leading up to the show.
According to ABC, the father of two is now retired and spends his days “hosting barbecues, playing pickleball, cheering on his favorite Chicago sports teams, four-wheeling, and spending time with friends and family at restaurants and local haunts.”
However, before Turner enjoyed a life of leisure, he worked in the fast food restaurant business. According to his LinkedIn page, he worked at the Mr Quick restaurant from 1971 to 1985, becoming a partner in 1978 and then a sole owner of the franchise in 1979.
According to the Mr Quick website, the restaurant first opened in Moline, IL, in 1965 as a quick-serve, hamburger chain. It still operates in certain states today, serving burgers, fries, chicken, and other food items.
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After leaving Mr Quick in 1985, Turner moved into sales and marketing, still within the food industry, working at Ken Moore Foods, John Morrell & Co, and Thoms-Proestler. His responsibilities included sales and consulting to a customer base of 60+ accounts, truck routing, and new product evaluations.
In the early 2000s, Turner had a brief stint as a training director at pizza chain Sbarro and was a general manager at King Food Service, where he “increased sales from $7.8M to $8.9M in 2002 over 2001.”
Turner took a short trip away from the food industry between 2003 and 2004 when he worked as a general manager at Gold’s Gym, where he helped build the management team for the new owner group through recruiting and staff development.
He returned to the food industry in 2004, working as the director of sales and marketing for meat distributor Rock River Provision. The LinkedIn page still lists this as Turner’s current job, but this appears to be a mistake, as by all accounts, the Golden Bachelor star is now happily retired.
ABC/Craig Sjodin
The LinkedIn page also sees Turner touting his various skills as a “business leader who has demonstrated excellence in unifying diverse individuals as well as company departments to achieve set goals and objectives.”
It goes on to say that he “has repeatedly demonstrated ability to hire, train, manage and retain quality employees” and “takes entrepreneurial approach to problem solving to get targeted results.”
“Professional achievements reflect high impact performance and willingness to accept all challenges,” the statement continues. “Has kept skills current through supplemental training in sales, marketing, leadership and communication. Enjoys detail-oriented work but will focus on long term strategies.”
Maybe that last line from his profile about “detail-oriented” and “long term strategies” will give fans a few clues as to who he ends up with on The Golden Bachelor.
Turner, whose wife Toni passed away six years ago, now lives at his dream house on a lake in Indiana and, according to Distractify, has an estimated net worth of about $1.5 million. It’s likely that he’s being paid around $100,000 for starring in the show.
The silver fox is now looking for love once again, having failed to meet the right woman following his wife’s passing. According to his friend Heather Lanning, Turner has dated in recent years, but things never seemed to work out.
“He dated a couple of women. They weren’t long-term, but they weren’t short-term either,” Lanning told The U.S. Sun. “He was with a couple of women for a decent amount of time, but it just didn’t work out… I think it goes back to whether you’re there for the right reason or not.”
The Golden Bachelor, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC
