stunthanger.com
Announcements => In Memory of our friends => Topic started by: Tom Niebuhr on January 18, 2015, 04:26:28 PM
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I just received a call from Mike Scott with the news that we didn't want to hear. Bob Gieseke passed away today peacefully in his sleep. The suffering is over. God bless a close friend.
There will be short service in Illinois.
I am sure that DMAA will also have a service at the club field in the future.
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So very sad to learn that. He was one of the Good Guys.
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This is very sad news as I hoped Bob would recover and be at the circles again. I remember talking to him after he won the Worlds and the NATS in the same year. He was a real gentleman.
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I just received a call from Mike Scott with the news that we didn't want to hear. Bob Gieseke passed away today peacefully in his sleep. The suffering is over. God bless a close friend.
There will be short service in Illinois.
I am sure that DMAA will also have a service at the club field in the future.
Dose anyone know the date, time and location of the service?
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My mother (Christy) and his son Joe are going to the funeral home today to figure out time/date. I will post here and in the open forum when his services will be held in Greenville Illinois.
Nathan
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Christy has requested that any donations go to Feed the Children
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There will be a very short graveside service on Saturday at 11 AM
Graveside service will be at :
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Greenville, IL 62246. It is off Idler Ln in Greenville.
Update, there will no longer be a viewing. All our invited for the short graveside service and then a small luncheon after that will be provided for everyone to spend time and visit with family.
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Still one of my favorite Bob Gieseke photos...where I asked Bob to point out the spot on his friend's shirt with Bob's Nobler plan transferred where it says to trace the rib pattern with a fat marking pen. Loved Bob's sense of humor and to watch him fly. He truly was one of the greatest and also. Wonderful to have been around such a truly gifted CLPA artist of all time. H^^
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I just found this forum today so I am very late to the memorial. I was moved by the message left by Doug Moon since my memories of Bob were very similar. I settled back in Dallas after Vietnam and being an avid stunt flier in my youth I immediately headed for "the park". I liked to practice alone so I would head out early in the mornings with my beat up old plane and my trusty stooge. That is when I first met Bob. He would fly on one circle and I would fly on the other. I was still very rusty after 6 years sticking bombs on real airplanes so my patterns were a bit rusty. This was 1975 and I knew that Bob Gieseke was the World Champion but I had no idea that the guy on that other circle was that Bob. He would say Hi from time to time coming or going and he always had that pipe.
In time I was hitting my 4' bottoms consistently (grew up in Ohio) and getting my intersections on 8's in the same half of the circle when out of the blue he asked me if I would like to critique his pattern. He told me what he was working on and I said OK. I still did not know his name. I watched a couple of flights, commented on what he wanted me to watch and that was that. As he was packing up he walked over to the other circle I was on and apologized for being rude and not introducing himself. He offered me some advice which I took. 4' is too low...make it 5'. We traded names and he left. For the next couple of years weather permitting we flew together separately and traded critiques from time to time. Just studying him fly changed everything I thought I knew about stunt. My own pattern went from the mid 400's to the mid 500's. My job would not let me compete out of town so I turned to judging. Bob moved his practice sessions out to Texas Stadium and flew with Al Rabe. I tried to get out there but after a couple of trips I had to drop out. I was privileged to have known Bob and to have lived through the Golden Years of Stunt. Those circles are mostly empty now.
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Another photo of Bob.