William Christian Gamm passed away December 24th, 2025.
Bill's parents, Chauncey Edward Gamm and Thelma Mae Christian Gamm, were married during the stock market crash of 1929. Bill, their only child, was born September 121h, 1942 in Kansas City, Missouri. Through his mother, Bill has direct genetical lineage to the first pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower and settled in America in 1620.
The family spent years in Kansas and Oklahoma, finally settling In Prairie Village, Kansas. Bill began “work" at 11 years old as a caddy and earned enough to purchase his first car! He attended SM East High School and worked for the wonderful Uhlmann family at Standard Milling Co. Highlights of his early life involved going to many movies: earning merit badges to become an Eagle Scout with 3 Palms and induction into the Order of Arrow; pole vaulting in high school; and many trips with his parents (they went to all 48 states).
He majored in fine arts at KU, played volleyball and met Penny Ronnau. They soon married on June 1st, 1963 and had a happy. fun life full of travel all over the world (at least 60 countries).
Two amazing children came into their lives: Christian arrived in 1969 and Kimberly In 1976. By this time, the family was living in southern California. Bill had found his dream job as an artist in Hollywood creating posters and drawings, etc. for the studios: mostly Disney. Universal and 20th Century Fox. Some of the thousands of films he worked on included “Out of Africa”, “Patton”, “The Sting”, and "The French Connection”. He enjoyed meeting stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, and Alfred Hitchcock. A musician he especially enjoyed was Michel Legrand. After many years creating posters and ads they decided to move to Santa Fe, NM and Bill was able to do his studio work via mail. Then 6 years later, they moved back to KC to help their parents and to join the New Theatre Scholarship Guild; giving scholarships to acting students at Bill's alma mater, KU and other schools with acting programs.
Bill's diabetes and foot wounds have been a big problem this entire year going in and out of hospitals and rehab places many times. The Lord called him on Christmas Eve.
Bill is survived by Penny, his loving wife or 62 years: his devoted daughter, Kim and her partner Rob: devoted son, Chris and his wife Angela; his sister-in-law, Mimi and Pat Burch; his sister-in-law Barb Ronnau: his treasured grandchildren Gavin Tilson and Fay Tilson and her wife Angel, many nieces and nephews, and countless other family members, friends, and neighbors who loved this creative and funny guy!
He was preceded in death by his parents Thelma and Chauncey Gamm and by his brother-in-law, John Ronnau.
A visitation will be from 9:30-10:30 am followed by the Funeral Mass at 10:30 am, Wednesday January 7th, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, burial at Resurrection Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to The New Theatre Scholarship Guild in Bill's honor. Bill will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him.