Gerald Francis Pidcock, the fourth of the six children of Elizabeth L. Hammang and Ernest F. Pidcock, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 19, 1926. His early education took place in Minneapolis at Holy Rosary, Adams and Phillips Grammar Schools, and his secondary education at Minneapolis Vocational School. In 1943 at the age of seventeen he began his military service in the United States Navy and was honorably discharged from active service in April 1946. He chose to re-enlist in the Naval reserve and continued in this capacity until November 1950, when he was finally discharged from the United States Naval Reserve.

Gerald entered the postulancy for cooperator brothers at St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, River Forest, Illinois, in 1950 and was formally admitted to the novitiate on March 16, 1951, being given the religious name of Jude. A year later on March 17, 1952, he made his first profession of vows and a few months later was sent to St. Peter Martyr Priory, Winona, Minnesota, where he did maintenance work and served as a plant engineer. In 1955 he was transferred to St. Rose of Lima Priory, Dubuque, Iowa, where he engaged in similar work. After two years in Dubuque he moved to Blessed Sacrament House in Madison, Wisconsin, again engaging in maintenance work. It was in Madison that he made his solemn profession of vows on March 17, 1958. In September of that year he was assigned again to St. Peter Martyr Priory, Winona, Minnesota, where he was placed in charge of maintenance for the priory, a service which he performed for the next eleven years.

With the closing of the priory in Winona in August 1969, Brother Gerald and several other cooperator brothers formed a Provincial Maintenance Team, placing themselves at the disposal of the various priories and houses of the Province whenever there was a need for their talents. For a year Brother Gerald lived at Holy Rosary Priory, Minneapolis, Minnesota, while working on this Team, however, it seemed that it would be better for him to be more centrally located and he was assigned to St. Pius V Priory, Chicago, on October 7, 1970, where he was to remain for the remainder of his life. In 1978 the Provincial Maintenance Team was disbanded, and Brother Gerald worked on maintenance at St. Pius V Priory until he was assigned to limited service in 1994. Although his formal assignments throughout his Dominican life were always directed toward maintenance work, Brother Gerald will be remembered for his kindness toward the sick and infirm.

Brother Gerald suffered from a number of physical ailments, particularly, diabetes, and in 1996 it was necessary to amputate one leg below the knee. For some time he was able to get around with the help of a prosthesis and a cane, but gradually he became dependent upon a wheel chair. On the evening of November 9, 2003, he was found dead in his room at St. Pius V Priory. A funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Pius V Church on November 13, 2003, and he was buried in the Dominican Plot at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.