His first public commission was for a statue of Abraham Lincoln that is now on the grounds of the Kansas State Capitol.
He married Marian Gage, a painter, shortly after World War I when he was in the medical corps and lived in Kansas City.
[3] They moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1924 and built a studio in their home in the Santa Monica Canyon.
[2] He was appointed professor of sculpture at the University of Southern California and rose to the head of the department.
Gage's mother and sister lived in La Jolla, San Diego, California.