Patrick Gene Gottsch, founder of Rural Media Group, Inc., passed away Saturday morning, May 18, 2024, succumbing to an unknown cause. Gottsch’s family is trying to cope with the loss they had to suffer in silence, requesting privacy.
Gottsch’s daughters, Raquel and Gatsby, who have been part of the Rural Media Group empire for over a decade, brought the news to the media.
They say the news came as a shock, as most of Raquel’s Instagram posts featured her praising her dad as the family’s rock.
Patrick Gottsch was already in his second marriage with his wife Angie Gottsch, whom he married in 2017 and had a daughter, Rose.
So, altogether, the Gottsch family remembers Patrick Gottsch as a loving father, husband, and grandfather.
The Gottsch family: Patrick Gottsch had built an entire empire hand-in-hand with his daughters!
Patrick Gottsch, full name Patrick Gene Gottsch, was born on June 4, 1953, in Elkhorn, Nebraska. He was 70 years old when the tragedy befell the family.
Gottsch started learning about broadcast satellites after moving back to Nebraska from Chicago and made his dream come true on August 31, 1988, by starting his own network, Rural Free Delivery Television (RFD-TV). However, it did not work out initially.
Yet, he again became involved in the broadcasting world in 1991 with Superior Livestock Auction and eventually re-launched his 24-hour RFD-TV on DISH Network in December 2000.
During the relaunching, Patrick Gottsch was already a father to his daughters Raquel Gottsch Koehler and Gatsby Gottsch Solheim, whom he had with his first wife, Shirley Hill.
Their actual dating and marriage timeline remains vague, but the eldest daughter, Raquel, was born around 1985, given she is 39 years old as of 2024.
Raquel graduated with high honors from Omaha’s Creighton University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences degree in journalism and mass communications.
She married in 2021 to her decade-long partner Sean Koehler, with whom she has two children.
Gottsch’s second daughter, Gatsby, is a 2017 law graduate. Unlike her sister, Gatsby likes to keep herself private. The only known fact is that she is a mother to a daughter.
Then, the sisters welcomed their third sibling, Rose, on December 9, 2013, which Patrick Gottsch had with his second wife, Angie.
Patrick involved his elder daughters in business at a young age. At present, Raquel is the Chief Executive Officer for the Cowboy Channel, and Gatsby is general counsel for Rural Media Group.
Now, the Gottsch sisters handle Gottsch’s empire, which, with 35+ years of dedication, has become one of the world’s leading multimedia content providers dedicated to rural and countryside lifestyles.
Additional Information
- Patrick Gottsch married twice in his life, although he kept his first relationship details private.
- Rural Media Group Inc. has expanded its network in various forms, such as RFD-TV The Magazine, RURAL TV, RURAL RADIO on SiriusXM Channel 147, and most recently, The Cowboy Channel in 2017.
- The Cowboy Channel provides service to over 42 million homes.
