Longtime Wichita business leader, radio celebrity dies

Robert “Bob” Gadberry was a longtime friend of Wichita.

He was a Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame radio announcer, a vice president at Wichita’s Fourth National Bank, former director of the Greater Wichita Community Foundation and past board member at Wesley Medical Center. For more than four decades, he was a familiar name and face in Wichita’s most prominent circles.

Mr. Gadberry died Wednesday in Overland Park. He was 98.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. on Sept. 9 at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village.

“He was a real gentleman and one of my best friends for nearly 50 years,” said Bernie Nichols, senior vice president of wealth management at Nichols Investment Group in Wichita. “He was top notch – a great example of a good citizen, person, father – you name it.”

Mr. Gadberry was born on Aug. 10, 1918, in Carthage, Mo. He was a 1940 graduate of Pittsburg State University. During World War II, he served with Armed Forces Radio. After the war, he announced news and sports for Wichita radio stations KFH and KFBI.

Through the decades, he often announced state and semi-pro baseball tournaments in Wichita, which earned him a spot in the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame.

From 1953 through 1981, he became involved with Fourth National Bank in Wichita, serving in various positions, including as the bank’s public affairs director.

Longtime Wichitans will recall Mr. Gadberry often emceed at church, school sports banquets and civic events during those decades.

He retired briefly in the mid-1980s but was recruited and served from 1986 to 1988 as the chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society in New York.

“He was encouraged to run for governor a couple of time and once for Senate,” Nichols said. “He was Republican. He would have done really well, but he didn’t want to sell his soul to contributors.

“He ran a couple of Bob Dole’s campaigns and was on the national campaign for Ronald Reagan.”

Mr. Gadberry is survived by his wife, Mary Virginia Morgan Gadberry; his daughters Marcia Shideler of Lenexa and Dee Martz of Colorado Springs; a sister, Dorothy Hemphil of Princeton, N.J.; a stepson, Jack Morgan of Columbia, Mo.; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The Porter Funeral Homes and Crematory in Lenexa is in charge of arrangements.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Longtime Wichita business leader, radio celebrity dies."