Bill B. Svoboda, 89, of Lincoln, passed away December 3, 2014. Bill was always a big presence, weighing ten pounds when he was born on a January night in 1925 at the family farm near Blue Springs, NE. His natural effervescence never faded and he continued to alternately smile or fight his way into new situations at thirteen different schools while his parents moved during the difficult ‘30s.
He always gave 100% of his energy as exemplified when he followed a high school coach’s advice to ‘tackle low,” resulting in the breaking of that coach’s leg when Bill tackled low! Skipping a grade in school, he entered the Army Air Forces Training Command at age 18, causing a Major to look at his baby face saying, “Lieutenant, how old are you?” He excelled in his Bombardier/Navigator/Co-Pilot training by making a direct hit with a “flour” bomb on the smokestack of a moving train in the midnight darkness. Amid angry inquiries the next morning at mess he remained silent. Playing center on an Air Force football team, his presence was dominated by an even bigger one: He was tackled by the famed pro player Bronco Nagurski, which he learned as he finally “came to” in the locker room. “Knocked out and struck out” became his son’s mantra of his dad when Satchel Paige, playing in the traveling Negro League, struck Bill out at the bat while on the Hebron baseball team in the late ‘40s.
A terrific dancer, Bill won a dance contest at the iconic Aragon Ballroom before leaving the service in 1945- his prize was to dance with movie star, Eleanor Powell. Once, while driving a tractor pulling a combine, a rural mail box protruded on the road ahead; he was lucky as he jumped free. In 1951 he felt really lucky to win the affection of a pretty, new teacher in Hebron, Kathie Schreiber. They married in 1952. In 1953, after the Hebron tornado, he was in charge of directing volunteers and became a first-time father when Deborah was born hours after the tornado struck. Twins Sally and Scott followed the next year, then Nancy, Barbara and Stacey. In the eleventh year of Bill and Kathie’s marriage, he again was fortunate after being hit by a semi-trailer truck running a stop sign bearing 30,000 lbs. of steel pipes at a county intersection. Being extracted from his totaled Buick, his first words to emergency personnel were “where is my briefcase?” After three months of hospitalization followed by months at home, he was once more rapidly walking the main street of Hebron with a smile and a “hello” to everyone. His energy was always directed to his family, God, and business. To the first two he showed his love and generosity and to business, his acuity and interest in people. His love and pride in his six children and Kathie was exemplary.
In Lincoln he was a former co-owner of Century 21 Home & Farm Realty; later, an associate broker at Kimball & Associates; a member of WSI (the only Czech among the many Germans); a member and daily patron of Bryan Lifepointe for twenty years; and a “Bampo” supreme to his ten grandchildren. Earlier, in Hebron, he was owner of The Svoboda Agency of Real Estate, Insurance, Investments & Auctioneering; owner of D & S Lumber Company; organizer and first president of the Jaycees; president of Rotary Club; commander of the Saxton Legion Post; city councilman; and chairman of the board of the Methodist church. Later he was a member of Grace Lutheran in Hebron, Good Shepard Lutheran in Fayetteville, AR, and Friedens in Lincoln. He was executive vice president of Northwest National Bank in Fayetteville and an independent builder at Holiday Island, AR. He was a graduate of Hebron High School and attended Beloit College in Wisconsin during his service years and Doane College upon returning from the service. He has been a member of Friedens since moving to Lincoln in 1987, serving in the past on the church council as well as being property chairman. Bill was very representative of his generation, learning to do hard work as a farm boy in the ‘30s and patriotic in the ‘40s by serving 2 ½ years in the Army Air Force. He loved the Big Band era, the music which stayed with him his entire life. He was a young businessman and father in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and pursued a new career in banking in the ‘80s. Next came much fun with grandchildren, and finally retirement in the new century at 80+ years of age.
Mourning the loss of his presence are wife Kathleen; daughters, Deborah of San Francisco, CA, Sally of Atlantic Beach, FL, Nancy of Lincoln, Barbara and husband Steven Fierro of Seattle, WA, Stacey Svoboda Tittle of Dallas, TX, son Scott and daughter-in-law Jan Enstrom of Lincoln; and ten loving grandchildren, Alexandra Svoboda of Denver, CO, Patrick Godfrey of Atlantic Beach, FL, Nicholaus Svoboda of Lincoln, Hannah Ledford of Washington D.C., Kathleen Godfrey of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, Natalia Ledford of Xela, Guatemala, Markus Svoboda and William Ledford of Lincoln, Jackson Tittle and Molly Tittle of Dallas, TX. He also leaves behind brother-in-law and sister-in-law, John and Helen Schreiber, and three nieces, Susan Fritz-Prey, Lindsay Schreiber De Zubeldia and Cynthia Schreiber Huxley.
Bill was a fifth-generation Nebraskan, his families coming to the state in 1865.