Victor Ralph Gess

Victor Ralph Gess

Born May 10, 1934 Wolf Point, MT

Died July 18, 2021 Alamo, CA

Husband, father, brother, author, and friend to all

Victor’s life journey began on a 600-acre homestead in Wolf Point, Montana settled by his father Julius and mother Alma.  He and his brother Robert, and sisters Lorraine and Helen, worked on the family farm raising cattle and growing wheat.  Victor participated in many Montana rodeo events growing up and became an accomplished bull rider, winning several championships by the time he was 26.

After completing his enlistment in the US Army, Victor graduated from Montana State University with a BS in Economics.  He married Hollie Carlson in 1960 and moved to Billings, MT where he worked as a Registered Representative. 

In 1966 Victor and Hollie and their two daughters, Cynthia and Catherine, moved to California where he managed the San Francisco branch office of Goodbody & Co. which later merged with Merrill Lynch. Victor and Hollie’s son, James, was born in 1967.

Victor and Hollie moved to Moraga, CA in 1968 where their children attended school and graduated from Campolindo High School. Victor and Hollie joined the Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church in Orinda. Victor was a member of the congregation for fifty-three years, serving as a Council Member during that time.  

He was an independent real estate investor and mortgage broker for many years.  Even in retirement he worked part-time at the Contra Costa County HICAP office in Concord, where he made many friends and was a valued employee.

Throughout Victor’s life he had a passion for genealogy, and spent years discovering his relatives in Europe as they migrated to the New World and eventually settled in Wolf Point, Montana.  As a result of his research and the oral history relayed by relatives, Victor became a published author at age 83 when Portrait of a Homesteader appeared on Amazon marketplace. 

He was a founding member of The Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE).

Victor was preceded in death by his parents, sister Lorraine Morrison, wife Hollie, daughter Catherine Mullenberg, and son James.  He is survived by his daughter Cynthia Jorgensen, granddaughter Kelsey Jorgensen, brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Merna Gess, sister Helen Robbins, and many nephews and nieces in the Western United States.

We are grateful to all the friends and family who reached out to Victor in his final days offering support and assistance.  Special thanks to his dear friends Hal and Leah from the HICAP office for their knowledge and guidance during this difficult time and to the wonderful caregivers at the Bruns House Hospice facility in Alamo, who made his final days peaceful and pain-free.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, November 7, in the afternoon at Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church, 433 Moraga Way, Orinda, CA.  More details to follow and will be posted on his CaringBridge site: https://www.caringbridge.org/public/victorsupdate.

Charitable donations in Victor’s memory may be made to Bruns House, East Bay Hospice, CaringBridge or Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church.

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