Wayne E. Loch

Wayne Eugene Loch, age 88, a former Sidney resident with longtime family ties to the area, passed away June 3, 2013, in Fairhope, Ala., from complications of COPD.

Wayne was the eldest son of Frank and Kathrene Loch, who for many years owned Frank Loch Electric in the building that is now Dude’s Steak House on west Illinois Street. Wayne designed and built the structure and operated his own business, Wheatland Building Supplies, in the same location. Wayne also was the brother of Marian Loch Lenzen, who died in Sidney earlier this year.

Wayne was born December 9, 1924, in Fairbury, Neb., where he grew up and graduated from Fairbury High School. He attended Yuba City Junior College in California for one year, followed by the University of Oklahoma, where he received a B.S. in Civil Engineering in June 1945. After graduation from Naval Midshipman’s School at Columbia University in New York City, Wayne was commissioned in the U.S. Navy and served on Palmyra Island.

He then worked for the Oklahoma and Texas State Highway Departments until he moved to Sidney in 1952 and opened his business. His parents and siblings had moved to the area in 1945. Wayne and Lawrence Brachtenbach built six houses on south 20th Street in the Loch Addition to Sidney.

Wayne left Sidney in 1960, when he decided to return to engineering, taking a position at Perrin Air Force Base in Texas. He was promoted to the Military Airlift Command Headquarters at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois in 1962. He lived in Lebanon and O’Fallon, Ill., while working for the Air Force. Wayne retired as Deputy Director, Operations and Maintenance, Civil Engineering Staff, Military Airlift Command in 1986 and then moved to Fairhope, Ala.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Jean Hunter Loch, who died in 1976, brother Dennis and sister Marian.

Surviving are his second wife, Betsy McKay Loch of Fairhope, Ala., and five children from his first marriage, Morgan (Karen) Loch, of Greenwood, S. Car.; Mitchell Loch of Pasadena, Calif.; Nancy Loch of Galesburg, Ill.; Wilson (Barbara) Loch of Granite City, Ill.; and Corbitt Loch of Edmunds, Wash.

Also surviving are four grandchildren, three step-grandchildren and two great grandchildren; brother Robert Loch of Custer, Wash.; brother-in-law Jerome Lenzen, a longtime Sidney resident; and sister-in-law Lynda Loch of Covington, Wash.

Memorial donations are suggested to the charity of one’s choice. Services are pending with Wolfersberger Funeral Home in O’Fallon, Ill.