Wallace Liebhart Gake

1926 - 2025

Wallace Liebhart Gake

January 17, 1926 - August 24, 2025

Wallace Liebhart Gake died August 24, 2025 at 99 years old.

Born January 17, 1926 in rural Seward County, Neb. to Liebhart Rheinhold Gake and Wilhelmina Caroline (Pankoke) Gake, Wallace is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 70 years, Mary Elizabeth (Wendell) Gake; daughter, Jeanne (Gake) Ronda; and siblings, LaVerne, Walter, Marjorie Doris (Underwood) Gake; and two infant sisters.

Wallace (Wally) spent his earliest years on the family's farm near Beaver Crossing and then Cheney, Neb. before moving to College View, a small village later incorporated into Lincoln. He attended College View High School where he met his future wife, Mary Wendell. He attended St. Paul Bible College until his 18th birthday, when he was drafted for military service in WWII.

Wallace served in the US Army Air Corp as a B-29 radar technician on Tinian Island in the Pacific during the final year of the war. After discharge, he returned to Lincoln to marry his high school sweetheart, following her graduation from Wheaton College in 1946, and subsequently graduated from the Nebraska State Trade School in Milford, Neb.

Wallace worked as a telephone engineer for the Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Company for 34 years. During that time, he was responsible for building the first cable TV system for Lincoln and southeast Nebraska, and also installed microwave radio equipment in Memorial Stadium, contributing to the broadcast of the first televised Husker Football home games.

Wallace was an active member of many air force associations including the 6th Bomb Group and the Commemorative Air Force. He especially loved attending air shows and annual reunions of his bomb group stationed on Tinian Island. He was also a distinguished member of the Engineer's Club of Lincoln, where he served as President in 1988.

He is survived by daughter, JoAnne (Gake) Kissel; and son, Jim and LuAnn Gake of Lincoln; his three granddaughters, Alexandra (Kissel) Roth of Lincoln, Meg Kissel of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Suzanne (Ronda) Lapolla of Midwest City, Okla.; as well as his four great-grandsons, Christopher, Milo, Dexter and Oscar.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at Roper and Sons South Chapel, 3950 Hohensee Dr, Lincoln, NE 68516.