My Genealogy Home Page:Information about William Frederick Gossadge
William Frederick Gossadge (b. April 10, 1903, d. February 20, 1987)
Notes for William Frederick Gossadge:
Bill Gossadge was born in a small log cabin in Reed Springs, MO.He attended a one-room school, which, years later, was dismantled and rebuilt in the amusement park called Silver Dollar City at Branson, MO.The building has been made into a small chapel, called the Wilderness Church.
His mother died when he was 5 years old.His father died 7 years later. He lived for a time with his older sister Mollie in Cherokee, KS,He then made his way to Joplin, MO.A woman who ran a brothel allowed him to live on her back porch for a time.He sold papers on the street for the Globe and the News Herald for several months.
It has been said that Shakespeare began learning about human nature as a boy when he had a job holding horses on the street.In that story, he spent a lot of his time studying the people who were passing by.In a similar way, Bill Gossadge may have been studying people in the days when he was a boy making his own way and being dependent on the responses of people with whom he had casual contact on the street.For the rest of his life he was distinguished by his ability to focus on persons he was talking to and trying to perceive their thoughts and preferences.
In 1918 he began working for Bill Markwardt, who ran the Quality Bakery.He worked from 2am until time to go to school.When the YMCA was opened in 1922, he was one of the first residents.
Gossadge made good grades in school in spite of his rugged schedule.He was a member of the high school ROTC and in his senior year was cadet major, the highest ranking officer in the Corps.
Markquardt took an interest in the lad, giving him increasingly more responsible jobs and seeing that he was able to continue his education.After Gossadge graduated from High School in 1923, Markquardt arranged for Gossadge to attend a short course of instruction with the Fleischmann Yeast Company.Upon completing that course (in New York) Gossadge signed on for 3 weeks as baker on the Belgian ship "Westphalia,"which made port at Portsmouth, England, Bremen, Germany, and LeHavre, France.
In 1924 Gossadge was appointed a cadet at West Point.He did not get to attend, however, as a condition of astigmatism in his eyes kept him from passing the physical exam.
With Markwardt's sponsorship, Gossadge attended from September to December 1924 a professional baking school, the American Institute School of Baking.He took courses in Shop Work, Shop Management, Experimental Baking, Baking Materials, baking Chemistry, Production Problems, and Basic Nutrition in Chicago.
One of his fellow students in the baking school was Pat McManus, of the M & M Bakery in Dover, N. H.McManus hired Gossadge to be in charge of bakery production at his bakery in Dover, starting in 1925.
Bill Gossadge had been dating Hazel Pearson since their high school days together.In September of 1925 Bill and Blanche Markwardt drove with Hazel to Niagara Falls, NY, where they met Gossadge and where he and Hazel were married.
After Gossadge had been in Dover for a year and a half, McManus arranged for him to go to Pittsburgh, PA for two years, where he worked for the 7 Brothers Bakery.Roberta Ann Gossadge was born in Pittsburgh April 22, 1927.On May 25, 1928, the family moved back to Dover.
One of Bill's coworkers in Dover was Henry Montminy.They became life-long friends who shared a love of practical jokes.These jokes continued during the decades when Gossadge was in Louisville and Montminy was still in Dover.Bobbie Ann quoted a friend of both who said that something seemed to go out of Bill Gossadge when Henry passed away in the 1970's.
In 1929 Gossadge was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Reserve, as a field artillery officer.He was not called to active duty.
In 1934 Bill Gossadge accepted an appointment in Minneapolis as Instructor in the Dunwoodie Institute School of Baking.After teaching for two years, he left in 1936 to became supervisor of production for Grocers Baking Company, a wholesale baker head quartered in Louisville, KY.He became an officer of the company, which grew to have 9 bakeries in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee.When Grocers was sold to Rainbo in 1959, Gossadge became president of Rainbo Baking Company of Louisville.He held that position until he retired in 1968.
In 1941 Bill Gossadge was elected Vice President of the Society of Bakery Engineers and he became President the next year.In 1941 he gave testimony in Washington D. C. for a congressional Bread Standards Hearings committee.In 1942 he was appointed to an Advisory Committee of the War Production Board.
Gossadge became a Mason early in his professional career and later was a Shriner.He served for a number of years on the board of the MasonicWidows and Orphans Home in Louisville.In 1965 we was elected President of the Louisville Safety Council.In 1965 Bill and Hazel joined other members of the Rotary Club in a tour of European cities.The group made significant stops in Copenhagen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris, and London.
Bill Gossadge earned the respect and admiration of people who were his allies and those who were his competition.Once when he was visiting in Daton a man came up to him on the street and shook hands.He said, "Hi, Bill, how are you, etc."He was a union representative who had dealt with Gossadge regularly in union negotiations.Once a black man who worked in the garage of Bill's company was delegated by his friends to ask Bill to run for mayor of Louisville.He was promised the support of those workers.
When Bill retired in 1968 he gave up his position as President of Rainbo Baking Co. of Louisville and became Chairman of the Board.He also began a part time job as consultant to the Kentucky Retail Grocers' Association, whose members were his old customers.
In 1978 Bill and his wife Hazel moved to John Knox Village, a retirement community in Lees Summit, MO,.Hazel had developed a serious heart problem and their contract at John Knox Village provided for lifetime medical care.Bill suffered a stroke in 1974 and spent the next three years in nursing care at John Knox Village.
As Bill approached age 60 he told his son-in-law Malcolm one day what he thought to be the measure of a man's success.He said one should look at that man's grandchildren.Don't look at what they have but what kind of people they are.If a man's grandchildren are capable, good quality people, then that man is a success.Bill lived to see his five grandchildren grow into adults whom he liked and respected.Thus, by his own criterion, his life was a success.
More About William Frederick Gossadge:
Burial: February 23, 1987, Lees Summit, MO.
More About William Frederick Gossadge and Hazel Estalee Pearson:
Marriage: September 18, 1925, Niagara Falls, NY.
Children of William Frederick Gossadge and Hazel Estalee Pearson are: