Vernon “Vern” Charles Gotschall’s soul passed peacefully to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021.

Vernon was born at home in LaPorte on July 15, 1925, to Charles and Hilda Gotschall. An only child, he attended St. John’s Lutheran School in LaPorte and enjoyed youthful activities like riding his bike, building model airplanes, ice skating in the winter at the small neighborhood pond and swimming in the summer at Stone Lake.

While attending LaPorte High School and working at the local ice cream and hamburger shop, Iselman’s Dairy, he met the love of his life, Helen Faye Atkinson, who had also spent all her life in LaPorte. While walking her home one evening as a favor to a friend who wished to walk her sister home without Helen in tow, Vern and Helen ended up sitting on the little hill at Riley School and talked the evening away and fell in love.

Always industrious, Vern also worked at Foxes Woolen Mill while in high school to make enough money to buy a car so he could take Helen to movies without getting cold in the winter.

It was also at Iselman’s that all the teenage boys gathered on Dec. 7, 1941, wondering where Pearl Harbor was and what lay ahead. Soon, after high school graduation, Vern was to become part of the 10th Mountain Division, 86th Mountain Infantry in the campaigns of the Northern Apennines and Po Valley. He was awarded the American Service Medal, European African Middle Eastern Service Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Purple Heart and Bronze Service Star.

As the conflict in Europe was coming to a close, his division was on their way to Japan and almost to the Panama Canal when WWII was declared over. Upon landing in his cherished USA, he immediately called his fiancée, Helen, and asked her if she wanted to get married. Helen said, “You bet!” and they remained sweethearts throughout the years.

In 1947, Vern and Helen drove cross-country to California, where Vern attended Woodbury University and received a degree in accounting. He then went on to work for Electrolizing Inc. in Los Angeles and Santa Clara, Calif., until he retired. They had three children together: David, Ben and Carol. His “bride” (as he always referred to Helen) passed away in 2012. Ben passed away in 2015. He is survived by his eldest son, David Gotschall and his wife Nancy; his daughter, Carol Bomarito-Dickinson and her husband Paul Dickinson; and three grandchildren: Nicholas Bomarito III, Daniel Vernon Bomarito and Augustus David Gotschall.

At the beginning of 2020 Vern, Carol and Paul all left California and moved backed to Indiana.  He truly was “back home again in Indiana.”

He was a good man who never envied another and always had a balanced decisive mind. He will be missed.  I write this as his daughter and his friend. God bless you, Dad.

No services are planned.

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To sign the guestbook or send a condolence, go to www.mchattonsadlerfuneralchapels.com.