South Ernie Gommel will have a memorial service after all

Jeff aka BOLT

Jeff aka BOLT

Memorial service to be held for Gommel
published by admin on Wed, 11/21/2012 - 12:28
By KRIS REILLY
Editor

LUCERNE VALLEY • Ernie Gommel will have a memorial service after all.

The Lucerne Valley Market and Hardware founder, who died on Nov. 10, will be honored with a celebration of his life on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 11 a.m. at the Lucerne Valley Community Center.

Gommel’s daughter, Linda, said her father did not want a funeral service. Though the Dec. 8 gathering will not be a funeral, Linda Gommel said the outpouring of grief and support from the community convinced her to hold the event.

“Just so many people expressed a real desire for their to be (a service), and we just sort of figured, ‘OK, we’re doing it for their sake,’ ” she said Monday. “It will be as little like a church service as it could be. ... It will be fairly unstructured and mostly an opportunity for people to get together and say stuff. I don’t see a big program.”

She said she had heard from people far and wide expressing their desire to come, including one former staffer who says he plans to travel all the way from Wyoming.

The general public is invited. The Community Center is located at 33187 Highway 247 (Old Woman Springs Road) in Lucerne Valley.

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Jeff aka BOLT

Jeff aka BOLT

Yep.. in this small town he was quite the entrepreneur. If the story I am told is correct... he was a retired engineer. He believed in this farming and Christian community strongly. He bought land at the main corner of town... built a full service old school grocery and one of the best hardware departments anywhere. Added to that he built a small strip mall next to the store that has a bank, ladies hair dresser and a few other local businesses. They have a huge outer gravel lot for truckers and OHVers to park and rest. And he and his family have been very involved in all things community related from holiday celebrations, parades, schools, town clean ups, town hall meetings, etc etc.

He wrote a fun and intelligent half page newspaper on the back of the stores ad page every week that I really enjoyed reading since moving here. Really helped me get to know my community this first year here. Neat old guy.
 
530ktm

530ktm

You know, it is a bummer that so many neat people leave the planet too soon. It just goes to show you that life is short and goes quickly. Too bad we can not have more people like this guy around more often.
 
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