Arthur Goodrich

Arthur was a long time resident of Colorado serving the Lord as a Minister of the Gospel in Steamboat Springs, Evergreen, Indian Hills and Littleton. He served in the United States Navy from August, 1941 to August, 1947. He is survived by his wife Audrey, his two children Bruce & Diana. He had four Grand-Children, nine Great-Grand children, and two Great-Great Grand children. I was born in Chehalis, Washington, on November 18, 1918, to Ralph Dean Goodrich and his wife Grace. My mother died at home from an infection about three weeks after giving birth to my youngest sister. A family took the baby girl to raise and another family took the two older children. My Uncle Lee had a farm and wanted a healthy boy to grow up and help in the work and I was chosen. In the early days on the farm I would be lying somewhere and loudly call, “Aunt Grace, come quick, I am dying.” I can only assume that I was playacting my mother’s death. I am not certain that Grace or Lee understood this. I believe I was around eleven years old when my cousin Freema and her husband gave me a bicycle they had made from parts found in the dump. When I began school the busses were simply trucks with canvas sides and removable benches.My cousin Connie has claimed that my first 4 years (in school) were spent crying and the next two fighting. In the valley several of the boys drove cars without a drivers license while they were still in grade school. One Halloween when I was in the eighth grade while folks were watching a film in the Grade School Auditorium I and a couple of other boys piled into one’s family’s touring car, loaded an old school bell lying on the High School grounds into the car, and drove around using a hammer to make it ring. High school classes were usually eight to ten students, but in my class consisted of three girls and myself. I was voted the boy most likely to succeed! My first church attendances were when my cousin Connie twice took me to Sunday School in the very small church in the valley, her wedding, my class Baccalaureate Service at High school graduation, and the funeral of a girl friend’s mother. I had almost run the gamut of church activity. After graduating from High School in 1936 I attended the University of California in Berkeley in the fall. I was not doing too well; in part because I had never learned how to study and in part because I had no personal goal. I came down with the flu at finals time and never returned. Connie’s husband got me on at the railroad where he was timekeeper. I was classified as a Locomotive wiper, a term left over from when they really shined up the engines. On my time card I was a ‘loco wiper’. I began at the wage of 40 and 1/2 cents an hour, but in a couple of months the pay was raised to 50 cents. The locomotives burned oil that came out of a four inch wide flat opening just above a similar opening through which steam could vent to distribute the oil. The flame would go about five feet until it hit the back wall of the fire box lined with fire brick and then turn up and reverse its direction turning upward to go through the fire tubes in the boiler to heat the water. If something stopped the flow of oil momentarily and then it resumed; the oil would hit white hot brick, turn to vapor, and blow up. One time I had a fire going in an engine and was cleaning the drive rods on the other side of the third engine over when I heard the fire go out. I ran around to the far side of the engine containing the fire and did not go up the steps into the cab, but up the hand rails onto the small ledge outside the window to reach in and cut the oil flow. Just as I reached in; the hot vapor blew. The fire box door was open (There had been cases where the closed door was literally blown off.) and a ball of flame the size of the door bounced off the wall of the tender around seven feet away. If I had been in the cab I would not be writing this. As it was my eyebrows were singed a bit. The Division Foreman was sitting on a work bench when I ran by and said he wondered why I was in such a hurry. About the first of June 1941 I drove 65 miles to the nearest Navy recruiting station. On advice, I joined at the lowest rank and received a whole 16 dollars a month. I went to a school for aircraft mechanics. For a couple of years before going into the Navy, on August 1, 1941, I had been friends with Audrey’s younger brother Kenneth. When I went to San Francisco to work in ship building Ken and I continued the relationship. Through Ken I met Audrey when she came home from her job in San Francisco. I scarcely spoken to her more than “Hello.” She came home for the three day weekend over the Fourth of July 1941. On Friday I picked up Ken after saying ‘Hello’ to his sister. On Saturday I asked Ken if his sister would like to go out with us and she did. On Sunday Ken had a convenient headache so Audrey and I had our first date. I think it was probably June when I made the second trip, taking along an engagement ring which she accepted. It took 3 months pay to buy the ring!! After Boot Camp I was sent to a Navy School at the Ford Motor Company plant some distance west of Dearborn, Michigan. In February of ’43 I was transferred to Alameda, CA, to be part of a group being formed to set up an aircraft engine overhaul unit in the South Pacific. I had liberty each night and would go over to San Francisco and out toward the beach where Audrey and her brother Cy shared an apartment. After around three weeks we decided to get married and were a week later. Thirty days later I sailed for the South Pacific. The life threatening factor there was not enemy action but malaria and dengue fever along with fungus. It would be difficult to die of thirst or starvation there. One could always find a coconut on the ground if you did not want to climb for one and have meat and drink. There were wild pineapple plants with fruit too fibrous to eat but nice sweet juice to be squeezed out. The banyan tree grew there with its forest of trunks and tremendous circle of shade from its branches. Our 24 man Quonset hut with two others and a latrine with showers were all under the spread of branches. The shade was helpful, but when the tree’s fruit of berries ripened; large bats swarmed the area (One was caught with a wing span of close to 4 feet and with jaws over three inches long full of needle sharp teeth). Because the bats did not use the latrine, one would throw a rain poncho over his head when going to the latrine or shower. I had left San Diego in early April 1943 and returned in mid December 1944 with a thirty day rehabilitation leave. The military hoped we would become civilized after 20 months in the jungle. After we received our uniforms and leave papers we could take off. I bought a Railroad passenger ticket for Oakland and without checking the schedule I telegraphed Audrey that I would be home for breakfast. Actually, I got into Oakland about 1 pm and then had to cross the bay to get out to where she lived. Audrey had gone through several emotional transitions by the time of my arrival, but she did let me into the apartment. In early September I received orders to an aircraft instrument School in Chicago. A highlight of our time there was the birth of our first born, our son, Bruce. Shortly after Bruce was born they pulled me out of class and gave me a small crew to pack up the school and ship it to Florida.After being discharged from the Navy, the first of June 1947, we headed for California. I went to apply for work with Pacific Telephone and Telegraph (known as Pa Tell associated with Ma Bell) and got right on because of my work with electric circuits, relays etc. We began to attend a Presbyterian Church in San Mateo while we lived in Redwood City. There was only one adult Sunday School class, mostly older people, who might spend two weeks on one verse and was no place for a nonbeliever unused to churches. Audrey was soon teaching in children’s Sunday School while I sat in the car and read the Saturday Evening Post or some such material during Sunday School and then went into the church service. After some months I began reading the Bible beginning at the beginning (Genesis) –as is usual with a book. I was reading Audrey’s long-used Schofield Bible, reading both Schofield’s notes and Audrey’s notes. Several months later while I was reading in Isaiah; I read the news of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. At the time, the Pastor was teaching on life of Jesus. One day I admitted to myself that no human could have put in writing the prophecies about Jesus life 200 years before he lived. I went into the church service, but was in turmoil. Finally, I told God I believed in Jesus and wanted Him as my Savior. I did not do this to be freed from judgment for my sins but because the scripture said I should. It was through obedience rather than fear. The turmoil ceased and a wonderful peace replaced it and has never left. This was in July 16, 1949. I continued reading and eventually finished the whole Bible and then reread the New Testament. By early summer of 1951 I felt the Lord wanted me to get seminary training. Since Audrey had once had appreciated a Pastor who was trained at Dallas Theological Seminary and Dallas had an annual week long Bible camp at Mt. Hermon close to where we lived; we attended the morning sessions. I would get home from work about 1am, sleep a few hours, then wake up in time to make the 9am meeting at the camp. While there we talked to Vice President Dr. Walvoord and were told Dallas would accept older students who did not have a tertiary school degree if it seemed they could do the work. I applied to Dallas and also applied for a transfer to Southwest Bell. I heard nothing from either request. I had one week of vacation coming and told Audrey I would drive to Dallas and if I were accepted at either I would stay, otherwise I would return. I arrived in Dallas Sunday afternoon and on Monday morning I went to the Seminary to check on my application. The girl said that not all my paperwork was in and an application was not considered until it was complete. She would check. She came back shaking her head. Two papers were missing, but I had been accepted! Southwest Bell could hire no one, period. I found a job at a small airfield. In January I became unemployed. We had paid two weeks rent, bought a few groceries, and were at the end of our resources. After the weekly prayer meeting at the seminary I stayed for my own prayer time for God’s guidance. About the only choice seemed to be to quit school. While I was there Audrey was looking for me to come home. She had received a letter from a man we had never heard of. He knew little about Dallas Seminary, but did know a woman who taught Women Bible Studies down the peninsula. Audrey had been one of her students. I had met her and she knew of my going to be trained for the ministry and suggested his supporting us. He wanted to support us the next 3 1/2 years. The Lord supplied wonderfully–as He has many times since. I was not prepared for Seminary level study. In fact, I learned the books of the Bible that first semester out of necessity. To gain experience in Christian service while in seminary, I taught in a men’s ward in the tubercular hospital on Sunday morning. At the end of that school year I was asked to be on the church staff in charge of Children‘s Church which was composed of three classes. The youngest had about 20 while the Junior Age had around 80. I finally served as the Sunday School Superintendent. Having fulfilled the requirements in both the College and Seminary courses, the Dallas Seminary put my name on the list of available pastors. I received an inquiry from Euzoa Congregational Church in Steamboat Springs, CO. In the 11 years I served there I conducted 120 funerals and officiated at 60 weddings. In recent years it has been very encouraging to hear of three generations of active Christian, godly families from those years of ministry. Believing the Lord wanted us to change the location of our ministry we did not put our name on any list but left it to the Lord. Evergreen Conference Baptist Church, a mission church, invited me to be their first full-time Pastor. Since we lived in the church building, we were involved in any activity taking place in the church. If we wanted day off we just had to leave home. The District Director suggested goals for each church for each year. For our Evergreen Church his suggestion was to have 100 members and 150 average attendance. I told him I hoped not. He, somewhat challengingly, asked why. I told him we had 125 members and had passed 200 in attendance several times. His next question was “Where did we put them?” Seven years later we took up the pastorate in Indian Hills, just around the mountain. They were down to 16 members and 20 or so attending.The Lord gradually added members over the six years we were there. In 1981 the Rocky Mountain District of the BGC was given 30 acres of a cattle ranch near Estes Park which was to be made into a Conference Center/Youth Camp (Meadowdale Ranch). The District could not afford to pay someone to watch over the process so I took retirement a year early and moved to the property. In 1982 we installed a ropes course, had a full summer program, and many weekend groups. A mother cat with kittens showed up, we adopted them and put them on staff to control a gopher like animal digging holes all over the grounds. Mama cat was a good hunter and in a few months the cats had to roam farther and farther from the buildings for dinner. We only gave them some milk. Audrey had begun a monthly report to the district churches and included a report on the staff cats. We learned that readers looked for this report first. We managed the Camp/Conference center until the spring of 1985. I was then asked to become the Associate Pastor for Senior Adults at Mission Hills Baptist Church. The church could not get me on budget for a year and a half so I was offered the ‘Go for’ and handy man job at a member’s garden nursery working 30 hours a week for him and volunteering 20 at the church as the first Associate Pastor for Senior Adult ministry. There were only two classes at that time. One included ages 70 to 90 and had a dozen or so members. The other included late 50’s and 60’s. The older group did not have much in the way of social activities. We began monthly dinners. Relationships grew. We also began to take the members to places of interest; then branched out to one day trips. I used the church bus to take the members on longer, 4 or 5 day, trips in the summer. I began teaching the older class almost immediately and the other one about three months later. We eventually had three classes of 60 to 80 in attendance and three of 12 to 20. In 1995 a former pastor retired and took over that ministry, although I still taught a class until about 2001. Another man began teaching when my voice was having problems at that time.During this time God very slowly brought a book into existence. I was learning so much I wanted to share it and sold some copies. Life became difficult. Art quit attending church when he could no longer hear the sermons or kind remarks of the believers. As his vision failed it became more difficult to read the Word. His one heartfelt desire was to go Home to be with his God and Savior. Finally on May 5, 2018 he entered his real home with the Father who loved him and had adopted him. One day we will join him and we also will be Home with our Father. …for as many as received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. John 1:12