Robert I. Gale

Robert Ivan (Bob) Gale passed away at Brookdale Nursing Center in Overland Park, KS on April 3, 2015. Bob was born March 14, 1921 at the family farm on Gale Road in Pontiac, MI to Alfred W. Gale and Lena Irene (Bartlett) Gale. The farm was on the shores of Pontiac Lake where Bob and his friends operated a boat rental livery during the summer months. After graduating from Pontiac High School he attended Michigan State University for two years leaving to take a position at the Fisher Body Company automobile plant in Detroit. During his year there, he attended night school at Wayne State University and was then hired in December 1941 by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to serve as an Air Route Traffic Controller in Washington, DC where he married his High School sweetheart Pauline Dorothy (Polly) Wood. After further service with the CAA in Cleveland, Ohio he was drafted into the US Army Air Corps in 1945 and served as a Sergeant in the Signal Corps during the post-war occupation of Japan until being discharged in late 1946. He then resumed his career with the CAA serving at air traffic control locations throughout the Midwest in Cleveland, Chicago and Kansas City in 1958 when he was assigned to Washington, DC as Chief of the Procedures Division in the Office of Air Traffic Control in the newly formed Federal Aviation Agency (FAA). He rose to become Director of the FAA Pacific Region in Honolulu and held similar positions in the Central Region in Kansas City until his retirement from Senior Executive Service in 1979.

Following retirement, Bob remained active in commercial aviation as an executive with Global International Airlines and later as a management consultant to several foreign airlines. He retired a second time in 2002 and continued to follow his passion for aviation as a member of the Quiet Birdmen, the Missouri Pilots Association, and the Air Force Association. He was a history buff and a patriot spending countless hours writing his congressmen when their votes on certain bills did not mesh with his views. He was a long-time member of Bethany Lutheran Church in Overland Park.

During his illnesses the last three years he fought every setback with great resolve, and dignity. In March, when facing his final illness he told his family that he was leaving to go back to the farm in Michigan as his mother was calling him home. This vision made him happy so we wish his soul safe travels.

He is survived by his four children Brad Gale of Fort Worth, TX, Bill Gale of Meridian, ID, Paula Gale Small of Olathe, KS and Bob Gale Jr. of Laguna Niguel, CA; seven grandchildren; ten great-grandchildren; and his fourth wife Vida Depperman Gale to whom he was happily married for 20 years.

Visitation will be 2:00-3:00 p.m. followed by funeral service at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, April 11, at Mt. Moriah, Newcomer & Freeman Funeral Home, 10507 Holmes Rd., Kansas City, MO 64131. Private burial in Mt. Moriah Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, at PO Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675.