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In Memory

Andrew Alton Gall - Class Of 1935 VIEW PROFILE

Andrew Alton Gall

  

ANDREW A. GALL

Feb. 7, 1918 - Oct. 8, 2010
SOUTH BEND - Andrew Alton Gall, 92, of South Bend, died at 6:45 p.m. Friday, October 8, 2010, in Healthwin Specialized Care Facility. Andy was born February 7, 1918, in Trenton, NJ, to Andrew and Bertha (Raday) Gall, who emigrated separately to the U.S. in 1907 and 1911 from Hungary. They met and were married in Trenton in 1914 and had two sons. The family eventually settled in South Bend in 1921.

As a young boy Andy would occasionally help his older brother and amateur radio enthusiast, James E. Gall (1915-2006), locate radio tubes to help him advance his hobby which later grew into a great career for Jim as an Electronics Warfare Scientist.

Andy's first job was as a newspaper boy for the South Bend News Times in the early 1930s, a job that one day became momentarily exciting. He recalled on the early morning of Sunday, March 27, 1932, he was picking up his newspapers near the St. Joseph County Courthouse just moments after the Purple Gang mobster, Basil Banghart, shot his way free from jail and left a stolen Thompson submachine gun on the courthouse lawn. Andy witnessed two men retrieving the weapon and his curiosity in firearms was piqued. In the late 1930s and early 1940s he became an expert pistol marksman and won several first place medals while on the South Bend Lathe pistol team. In his youth,

Andy was enthused with early aviation and followed it intently. As an eleven-year-old he was fortunate enough to witness from Cartier Field at Notre Dame the Graff Zeppelin as it passed by on its 1929 trip around the world. In the mid-1930s he took a biplane ride in a Curtiss Condor with Clarence Chamberlin, the second person to cross the Atlantic Ocean just two weeks after Charles Lindbergh's historic 1927 flight.

He graduated from South Bend Central High School in 1935 then worked as a machinist for South Bend Lathe and later for the Studebaker Corporation, Curtiss-Wright Corporation and the Goodyear Tire Corporation in Akron, OH.

He retired as a Computer Numerical Control Turret Lathe Operator in 1983 from Dodge Manufacturing in Mishawaka.

Andy served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a Fireman First Class Motor Machinists Mate. He attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL, where he studied diesel mechanics. He helped keep the tugboats running in San Diego and San Francisco and handled large munitions bound for the Pacific Theatre. He was stationed in San Francisco at the end of the war.

On September 17, 1945, in San Francisco, he married Pearl R. Grabarek, who passed away May 8, 1993.

He was an avid reader, an engineer at heart, loved the sciences and followed the space program closely for many years. He was fortunate enough to witness firsthand both a Saturn V and a Space Shuttle launch. Andy could display a cantankerous facade when he deemed that the occasion required it but, in truth, he was one of the kindest, most honorable men ever produced by the "Greatest Generation."

He was a member of Memorial Presbyterian Church, South Bend. He was a proud Freemason and he always treated his fellow man with dignity and respect. He would often help friends, family and even strangers who needed technical assistance. His horticultural knowledge, expertise and love of growing fruit trees combined many years ago into the most rewarding hobby of winemaking...long before it became "trendy."

A son, Fredrick, and a granddaughter, Emily, survive Andy as well as lifelong friends Jo Johnson, the Becky and Greg Johnson families, all the good people he had the privilege of meeting in this world who are still with us, and many wonderful neighbors.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 12th, in the Welsheimer Family Funeral Home North, 17033 Cleveland Road. Committal services and burial will follow at Highland Cemetery. Friends may call Monday, October 11th, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 30 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2015, Chicago, IL 60602. Family and friends may leave e-mail condolences at www.welsheimer.com.

Published by South Bend Tribune on Oct. 10, 2010

01/20/2023 EJS



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