Gottlieb, Nathan J.

Nathan J. Gottlieb

Nathan passed away at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, Iowa on Monday, 18th Jan. 2010, after a sudden heart attack. He was 33.

Born in Iowa City, he attended Kalona Elementary, Mid-Prairie High School and the University of Iowa. Generous and kind, Nate was well liked and very well known. At the Iowa City institution that is the bar Joe's Place, for many years Nate “worked the door,” a job he performed with assiduity. Such was his tough-yet-fair reputation that during a local election, though he did not announce his candidacy, Nathan received write-ins from people who voted for him to be sheriff. His gregarious nature was complemented by his storytelling. He was widely traveled, and being a motorcyclist, sometimes made lengthy road trips across the United States.

Mechanically- and mentally-gifted, he was a fire safety equipment installer and taxi driver in Iowa City, returning to college to study environmental science. A gun collector who enjoyed hunting, a dream of his was to manage his family's woodland property in Riverside, Iowa.

He had several narrow escapes over time, including being trapped in an overturned truck, barely escaping with his life from the basement of a burning building in Iowa City, and freeing himself from a vehicle submerged in freezing water in Old Man's Creek.

A self-described “pro-Choice redneck,” Nathan loved kids, particularly the young people around him: Doak and Lucia Allgood, Piers Rodd and William and Ashton O'Malley. He was looking forward to having children of his own. To his older sisters he was a wonderful “big little” brother, to his father a supportive and loving son.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Linda Gottlieb.

His beloved girlfriend, Julia O'Malley; father, John Gottlieb; sisters, Sarah Gottlieb and Chloe Allgood; and bulldog, Sophie, survive him.

The open-to-all memorial will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, 24th Jan. 2010, at Joe's Place, Iowa Avenue, Iowa City, Iowa.

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