Gordon Dean Langenbeck

Gordon Dean Langenbeck, 85 of Grants Pass passed away Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center, Grants Pass, Oregon. He was born on 1 February 1941, in Santa Maria, CA to the late Chester and Helen (Stoddard) Langenbeck. He was educated in local schools and graduated from Santa Maria High School in 1958 where he was the most valuable track athlete and life member of the California Scholastic Federation.

He graduated from Cal Poly in 1962 with a degree in industrial engineering. From 1963 through 1964 he served in the US Army mainly in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 1965 he started his civil service career as an industrial engineer at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. He eventually worked in Hunters Point and Long Beach Naval Shipyard before transferring to McClellan AFB in 1968. In 1972 he was selected to attend the Air Command & Staff College at Maxwell AFB, AL and while there completed a Masters Degree in Public Administration at Auburn University. He continued his career at McClellan AFB when he took an early retirement in 1990 at age 49. His last two positions at McClellan AFB were Aircraft Division Chief and F-111 System Manager.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Heide Becker Langenbeck of Grants Pass, OR, daughter Michelle Harris and her husband Daryl of Lincoln, CA and his son Aaron Langenbeck and wife Tami of Rio Vista, CA. He is also survived by two grandchildren; Karly Harris and step grandson Dustin Harris. He was preceded in death by his grandson Samuel Harris, who died in 2015

He was a person of many interests including investing, genealogy, gardening, computers, digital photography and fly fishing and fly tying. His true passion was fly fishing for steelhead right in his backyard on the Rogue River and targeting big still water trout in Agency Lake. He also was a twenty time visitor to New Zealand to trout fish.