The Reverend Dr. Wallace Gene Gober “Wally”, died on September 4, 2023, in Great Falls, Montana. Wally was born March 4, 1939, in Klamath Falls, Oregon to Clarence “Tab” and Mary Gober. He attended Henley High School, graduating with the class of 1957. Over the course of the next several years, he completed his undergraduate work at Southern Oregon College and his graduate studies at the University of Oregon and the Seminary of the Southwest.
Wally married Carole Osterman in 1960. They had one daughter, Heidi. Dr. Gober taught at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio and Western Montana College in Dillon, Montana. He and Carole divorced in 1972.
Wally married Patricia McDowell Timken in 1975. During the early years of their marriage, he taught at the college and Pat opened a restaurant, The Establishment, in the heart of downtown Dillon. In the early 1980s, they left Dillon to attend seminary in Austin, Texas. Wally and Pat were one of the very first married couples in the United States to be ordained Episcopal priests. They went on to serve at St. James in Bozeman, Montana; St. John’s, and the Tri-County Episcopal Ministry (TEAM) Ellenville, New York, and then the Diocese of Massachusetts, where Wally took on the role of an interim priest and pastoral counselor in Attleboro. Following Pat’s passing, Wally returned to Montana to live with his daughter and son-in-law.
Wally was preceded in death by his wife of 41 years, Pat; his parents Tab and Mary; sister, Winefred Murphy; brother Burrell Gober; sister Betty Lou Jack and brother-in-law, Marion; nephew B. Rhett Gober; and niece Reina Gober Leppert.
Wally is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Heidi and Scott Pasek of Great Falls, Montana; brother and sister-in-law, John and Jae Gober of Hillsboro, Oregon; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, John and Ella McDowell of Aberdeen, South Dakota and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grandnephews. Cremation and interment beside his wife at Highlands Cemetery in Great Falls have taken place.
