Gebauer, Bruce A. 1858-2022

GEBAUER

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 4/22/2023 at 16:23:48

Bruce A. Gebauer, age 64 of Sioux Falls, SD passed away on Wednesday, December 14, 2022. A Private Family Memorial Service will be held in the coming days.

Bruce Gebauer was born October 4, 1958, at the hospital in Orange City, Iowa. He was helped into this world by a beloved home-town legend, Dr. Murphy, who discovered a problem and saved his life before it began. He lived in Alton, Iowa until he found the love of his life, Rhonda and they made their home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Bruce loved Alton where everyone knew and loved him. His greatest gift was comedy and all had favorite stories of their interactions with this funny man. He could impersonate so many not just famous people but local characters. Making people laugh was his purpose and he did it so well. Through the years Bruce had many jobs all from working at a tar plant in the summer to working at Goodyear even working as a door-to-door vacuum salesman. Eventually he ended up buying his dads gas truck and did that to many years. Until one day at one of his dad’s small rental houses, he met the love of his life, Rhonda. Bruce and Rhonda dated for many years but one day they got into fight and ended up unfortunately breaking up. But Bruce couldn’t live his life without her, so he ended up putting on the sales speech of his lifetime and by the end of the day they were back together. After a while Bruce decided to leave the gas truck behind to look for a new job which ended up being Harker’s which he found through a close friend of his. Up until that part of his life it’s the best job he’s ever had working in food sales. One day his customers Sid and Nadine told him about a baby that was about to be born that was going to be put up for adoption. Bruce and Rhonda decided to adopt that baby and got to take home their baby boy when he was three days old. They ended up naming their new son Jacob. He worked at Harker’s for 15 years until it was bought out by Rynnheart. For three years Bruce worked at Rynnheart but ended up quitting and took the summer off to spend time with their now eight-year-old son, Jacob. Bruce always said that summer was the best summer of his life because he got to spend every day with Jacob. As that summer came to a close, he stared looking for a job and ended up find a company called MARC chemical. During the interview there were a lot of questions. But Bruce had to stand out on the last question they asked what was his best sale he ever made. Bruce thought about that and ended up telling the story about when he got Rhonda to take him back after their brake up for not even a day. The interviewer was so surprised when Bruce told him that because he was the only one that told anything like that out of all the candidates. A few days later they called Bruce up to tell him he got the job and Bruce loved his job. He and ended up staying there for 12 years.

Bruce and Rhonda bought their first house in Sioux Falls where they shared their life together. Bruce was a salesman and was good at it. He was often the top salesman in his company time and time again. To use an old cliche, he could sell ice to an Eskimo.

Jacob and his dad were inseparable and they were friends as well as family.

Comedy was not his only purpose; he was generous and kind and helped anyone along the way that needed it. He was a wonderful father, husband, sibling, friend, dog dad, uncle, child of God… He loved Jesus and most certainly was making the angels laugh on December 14, 2022, when he went to his true home.

We will surely miss him, but have tremendous gratitude for having this good man in our lives for 64 years. All of our love to you forever, Bruce. Peace be with you.

He was a loving husband to his wife, Rhonda Gebauer, and a loving father to his son, Jacob Gebauer. But most importantly he was a loyal friend to Paul Keller and Avery Zahn; and many others.