Joe Thomas Vosoba

1929 - 2025

Joe Thomas Vosoba

August 25, 1929 - January 15, 2025

Joe T. Vosoba, retired lawyer, former state senator, and Czech leader died January 15, 2025. He was 95.

Joe practiced law at Wilber and Crete for 30 years as senior partner in Steinacher and Vosoba, Attorneys, before health problems forced his early retirement. He and his wife Kathy spent winters in Arizona until establishing residence at The Landing in Lincoln.

For nearly 10 years he was a Vice President, Director, and one-third owner of Saline State Bank in Wilber, now First State Bank.

Vosoba was elected state senator in 1968 at the age of 30, defeating the incumbent. He was reelected unopposed and was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee his second term.

He was the last survivor of the 4 founders of the Nebraska Czechs, which sponsored the Wilber Czech Festival, and was the first President of the organization. Until his retirement he was pro bono counsel, creating corporations Nebraska Czechs, Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, Wilber Bakery, Czech Craft Shop, Wilber Hotel, among other legal services, all without pay. With his wife Kathy, he wrote, directed and narrated the Czech Historical Pageant for 25 years. They also wrote the book "Tales Of The Czechs," Czech history and legends, with all sales proceeds donated to the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber. In his later years, he was a leader in promoting Czech language and culture at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, serving as Chairman of the Czech Heritage Program Committee of the UN Foundation, which included sending UNL students to study expense-free in Prague. He encouraged creation of a brewery to make authentic Czech beer in Wilber, and proposed creation of the Czech Music Center of America in Wilber. In 2011, at the 50th Czech Festival, he was honored with the Founder's Award by the Wilber Czechs.

Vosoba was founder of the Saline County Historical Society and its first President. In Wilber he was chairman of the Library Board which built the Dvoracek Memorial Library and chairman of the Wilber Housing Authority which built the "Czech Village" low-rent housing for the elderly.

After the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, he and his wife volunteered to help the Czech people convert to democracy. They lived in Prague for six months while he served as unpaid manager of "Education For Democracy/USA," a volunteer English-teaching program. He placed over 40 volunteers to teach English in Bohemia and Moravia provinces. They later renovated and lived in a cottage by a forest in Bohemia for several years.

Born on the family farm in Saline County, he graduated from Milligan High School. Vosoba worked his way through the University of Nebraska as a full-time student while working full-time for six years for The Lincoln Star as reporter, feature writer, and photographer. He earned Bachelor of Science and Juris Doctor degrees in those six years. Upon graduation, he voluntarily enlisted during the Korean.

War to serve in the US Army as an infantryman. He trained with the 101st Airborne Division, the "Screaming Eagles." After the Korean War ended, he was honorably discharged and settled in Wilber and practiced law.

A 60-year member of the Nebraska Bar Association, he served twice in the Bar's House of Delegates, twice on the Executive Council, twice on the Judicial Council and many years on the Disciplinary Review Board. At the age of 38 he was one of three lawyers recommended by a nominating commission for appointment to the Supreme Court of Nebraska. He took pride in the fact that, in 30 years of active practice, there never was an ethical complaint, or even a letter of inquiry, raised about his ethics.

As senator he introduced the constitutional amendment, approved by the voters, to permit Industrial Development bonds, and then introduced the legislation creating the Industrial Development Act (IDA) authorizing bonds to build factories in the state. Many millions of dollars of new industry resulted.

Other legislative achievements were passing the point system to prevent repeated traffic violations, the merit system to select judges on merit instead of by political popularity, and creation of the Nebraska Industrial Research Institute, which never got funding, but was designed to serve like UNL's present Innovation Campus on the former fairgrounds. He always felt his best work as senator was to lead and win the fight (with few exceptions) against heavy national lobbying by the billboard industry to keep billboards off the interstate highway, so that travelers could see the beauty of Nebraska.

A liberal and lifelong democrat, he was Robert Kennedy's campaign manager for the First Congressional District and was on John F. Kennedy's Nebraska advisory board.

He loved horses all his life and for over 20 years was a breeder of purebred Arabian horses.

He is survived by Kathryn, the wife he loved for 68 years, daughters Debbie Wagner of Topeka, KS, and Beth Vosoba of Washington, DC; grandchildren Anna Wagner McHale, Lee Wagner, Madeline Wagner, Rachel Schad, Andrew Joseph Plamann, and Rohini Mauk, six great grandchildren; two nephews and many friends in the US and Czech Republic.

Half his ashes will be scattered in the Czech Republic and half interred with his widow at the Wilber Czech Cemetery, where ashes of their daughter Julie Vosoba and their son Timmy Vosoba are buried.

A memorial service will be held at the Czech Cultural Center in Wilber, Nebraska on February 22nd at 2 p.m. In lieu of sending flowers, the family prefers a donation to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.