Eugene “Gene” C. Blunck

OSMOND — Memorial services for Eugene “Gene” C. Blunck, 88, of Osmond, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Osmond. Rev. Scott Kirchoff will be officiating the ser vice. Private family inurnment will be held at the Osmond city cemetery in rural Osmond. Organist will be Lori Koehler.

Gene died Monday, Dec. 26, 2022, at Osmond General Hospital in Osmond.

Stonacek Memorial Chapel in Osmond is in charge of the arrangements.

Gene was born on Nov. 22, 1934, in rural Osmond to Carl and Frieda (Pruess) Blunck. He was baptized at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pierce June 23, 1935, by Reverend Holzberger and confirmed in the Lutheran faith in 1961 in Omaha. He attended Country School District #61 northwest of Osmond to the eighth grade, then attended Santa Maria High School and received his GED in Santo Maria, CA. He then attended Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, CA.

Gene farmed with his father on the Blunck farm north of Osmond through 1957 with the exception of two years spent in the Army. In January 1954, he volunteered for the United States Army. The Army assignments were to Fort Riley, KS, for basic training, Fort Monmouth, NJ, for telephone dial and central office maintenance train ing, Fort Meyer, VA, to acquire a security clearance, and Elmendorf AFB in Alaska for telephone office maintenance. After the service, he went to work for Western Electric in Millard, NE, in 1958 as a telephone cable assembler.

In 1960, he worked for ITT Kellogg in Chicago as a technician installing, testing and fault isolation of communication systems in Atlas Weapon System Missile Site. Gene married Louise (ReGear) Stogdill Dec. 13, 1961, in Omaha. His next assignment was to the Minuteman Weapon System Missile Program at Waltham, MA, as an engineer. From 1965 to 1989, he supported the missile test program at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, living in Santa Maria. Tasks included being a contractor representative to support the Air Force Minuteman and Peacekeeper Missile Flight Test Program. He was also assigned as a member to a special team of associate contractors identified as REACT (Rapid Evaluation and Correction Team), to identify and correct missile weapon system problems at missile sites in Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and Missouri. This included associate contractor classroom training at Autonetics, Boeing, Logicon, GTE Government Systems, ending this assignment as a system engineer. From 1990 to 1994 when he retired, he worked at Ellsworth AFB, living in Rapid City and Belle Fourche, SD.

He was in support of the installation, testing and problem resolution of the electronic systems for the Air Bomber Training Range. Following retirement in 1994, Eugene became a fulltime RVer traveling the United States and Mexico. He made his home base in Santa Maria, CA. Eugene spent many times visiting his sister Lorrene Schultze and family in Osmond, NE. In 2008 he was diagnosed with cancer. Eugene moved to Osmond in 2019. He was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Osmond, and long-time member of Grace Lutheran Church in Santa Maria, CA.

Survivors include his nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents Carl and Frieda, two infant sisters, sister Lorrene Schultze, and special friend Marsha Stuve.

Condolences may be expressed to the family on-line at www.stonacekfuneralchapel. com.