Longtime Tell City Welding Instructor Dean Gengelbach Dies at 65

Tell City residents are mourning Dean Edward Gengelbach, a native son and longtime welding instructor who died Feb. 21, 2026, at age 65. Local funeral and obituary notices list his birth date as May 6, 1960, and name his parents as Edward and Malinda Gengelbach; those notices also described him as "a native son of Tell City, Indiana, and a widely known welding instructor and mentor in the region."

Ivy Tech’s Tell City directory identifies Gengelbach as Adjunct Faculty - Welding and lists an institutional phone contact: 812-547-7915 ext 127105. The directory entry reinforces his role in local technical education and places him among Tell City campus staff and faculty who support workforce training in trades. Patricia Harding also appears in the Tell City directory as Adjunct Faculty - Welding with phone 812-547-7915 ext 127102.

The obituary text available to the newspaper is incomplete; the notice is truncated at the line "Services: The" and does not include service times, visitation, burial arrangements, or names of survivors. The community has not been provided a cause of death in the available notices. Those gaps mean family and service details remain pending public release.

A snapshot of Ivy Tech Tell City staff included 14 results in the directory search and shows other campus instructors and staff who work alongside Gengelbach, including Caleb Hedges listed as Adjunct Faculty - Industrial Technology, Rich Simpson as Adjunct Faculty - Electrical Systems, Charles Dunn as Lab Technician PT, and Victoria Deer listed as Testing Proctor. The directory entries document the campus network that delivers trade and career programs in Perry County and surrounding areas.

Gengelbach’s dual presence in local funeral notices and the Ivy Tech staff directory ties him both to Tell City’s civic life and to vocational training that serves local employers. With his obituary describing him as a mentor in the region and the Ivy Tech listing confirming his role as Adjunct Faculty - Welding, his death removes an experienced instructor from the Tell City technical-education landscape.

Public inquiries about institutional matters related to Gengelbach’s teaching role may be directed to Ivy Tech Tell City by calling 812-547-7915 and using extension 127105 or extension 127102 for the adjunct welding office. Further funeral and survivor information was not available in the obituary excerpt received by the paper.