Don Walter Gobel

Donald Walter Gobel passed peacefully from this world into the presence of his heavenly father on Monday, February 27, 2023, at his home in Sun Lakes (Banning), California. Don was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 4, 1935. His father Walter H. Gobel (Giöbel) and mother, Goldie (Gulli Blom) came separately to the United States as teenagers from Sweden. They met and were married in Chicago. When Don was eight years old, he moved with his parents and younger brother, Roy, to Glendale, California. Don graduated from Glendale High School in 1954, completed a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Woodbury University in 1956 and began working for Aeronutronics (Philco-Ford Aerospace) upon graduation. The same year he married Liz (Helen Elizabeth Stevenson) at the Eagle Rock Covenant Church in Los Angeles. Their two sons David and Marty were born soon after. Don also served as a staff sergeant in the Air National Guard in the early years of his marriage. The Gobel family moved to Costa Mesa when Aeronutronics opened a new facility in Newport Beach in 1959. Four years later, Don began his long career in the sporting firearms industry, working for ten years at Winchester Repeating Arms in New Haven, Connecticut, and then as president of the Weaver Rifle Scope Company in El Paso, Texas, for nearly four years. Following a brief interlude with a San Diego-based computer company, Don became president of Browning Firearms (North America), in Morgan, Utah, directing that company through numerous changes for 20 years. After retiring, Don and Liz returned to southern California, purchasing their home in Sun Lakes to live near his parents and brother. Don continued to serve as a director on the boards of Leupold Rifle Scopes and Crimson Trace laser grips for several years.

Far more important to him than his career in the shooting sports industry was Don’s faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord and his commitment to the church. Following the model and teaching of his parents, Don served as a teacher and leader in the churches he belonged to over the years, most recently as an elder at Fellowship Church in Beaumont, California. Don is survived by his wife Liz, his son David and his wife, Fun and their son, Matthew and his wife Katherine and their daughter, Katherine, and his younger son, Marty, his wife Marites and their daughter Melissa Behl and her husband Jason and son, Daniel. By the grace of God and the example of Don they are all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.weaver-mortuary.com for the Gobel family.