Eric Goodrich

Eric Goodrich, age 51, of Janesville, died on Saturday, December 29, 2018, in Mankato, following an extended battle with depression and anxiety.
Memorial service will be 11 AM on Monday, January 7, at Hosanna Lutheran Church in Mankato with Rev. Mike Omtvedt officiating. A private interment will be on a later date.
Visitation will be from 2-5 PM on Sunday, January 6, at Starkson & Steffel Funeral & Cremation Service ~ Arnoldt Chapel of Janesville. Visitation will continue for one hour prior to the service at the church on Monday.
Memorials are preferred to the Horizon Homes - South Central Crisis Center in Mankato.
Eric was born with many gifts and talents. He was loving & giving, inventive & imaginative, resourceful & quick-witted, responsible & very complicated.
All of us benefited from this bounty. It may have been as simple as his sparkling blue eyes, a spontaneous belly laugh, or having him show up to mow your grass.
Maybe he drove the skid loader for two hours in a snow storm to push out your driveway. Or perhaps he helped you put up hay in between rain storms in August, built a retaining wall, or readied a Boy Scout Camp for a Summers opening season.
Perhaps you benefited from his resourceful, inventive, responsible self, on one of those many trips around the world, or from state to state for weeks at a time, while working at MTU.
These are just a few examples of the many ways Eric used his gifts and talents while helping others.
Eric loved Charlie Brown. He had the Charlie Brown Dictionary, paperback books, all kinds of things. Best of all, he loved watching the made for TV specials every year throughout his life. He was every character rolled into one complicated guy.
Charlie Brown prone to anxiety and depression, worrying if he is liked or respected. Snoopy a sometime flamboyant jokester, sometimes the Red Baron on gallant missions. Lucy bossy and crabby, a pain in the well, you know. Schroeder conscientious, disciplined and passionate about his talent and skill. Linus clearly the brightest of the gang. Witty, knowledgeable, and passionate; faithful, idiosyncratic, inventive. Mulling over new and interesting ideas.
Eric was all of these and much more:
A Brilliant Designer, who given the chance, could visualize a project from beginning to end
A Dreamer with projects waiting in the wings
A Loving Husband
A Dad Who Loved His Boys
A Son
A Brother
A Farmer, Builder, Electrician, Mechanic, Plumber, Mason
As a designer, he was taking apart pews in church as a boy to see how they worked, never mind about kneeling. He used various bits and pieces of metal and wood to make his own farm toys. All his tinkering as a kid led to him design and manufacture electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and engine parts. He designed and remodeled buildings. He built a 20 x 40, 3 story addition to our home completely from scratch. Digging the hole for the basement, laying each brick, manufacturing 20 full-span floor and ceiling joists; dirt to roof, with his direction the extended family with friends built it together.
Almost everything Eric knew was self-taught. He applied some of what he knew about mechanical and electrical engineering in his job at MTU.
Eric loved farming. He also loved and had enthusiastic respect for antique farm equipment. We have 9.97 acres, and yet at last count I think he had 2 combines, 18 tractors, 3 balers, 4 hay wagons, 3 manure spreaders... Oh my gosh the list goes on. Mechanical, horse drawn, walk behind. He loved it all.
When our boys got into scouting, Eric jumped in with both feet. He became Scoutmaster of Troop 89 in Janesville. Troop meetings, camping trips, Cuyuna Scout Camp, and special events were all opportunities to help boy-leaders have fun and grow.
Like Charlie Brown, Eric knew the value in the companionship of a loving dog. Each one had his or her own personality. Nyssa, Pogo, Goober, The Twins; Willie and Tillie, Skipper, and the baby Phlox. Most all of them were rescues except Goober. Eric rescued Lois Gossman from Goober. He got Goober from Dan. Thanks, Dan
Goober chewed the bumper off a car, the whole windowsill in the back porch, and even chaining him up to a tractor tire rim couldnt deter that dog from getting around the farm. He just pulled it behind him. Nyssa loved riding in Erics 67 Chevy Pickup. She got so used to sitting in his lap when he was driving that she thought that it was her spot. When he got out, thats where she sat. He was hard pressed to get back into the drivers seat.
He left behind three of those companions. Skipper, Willie, and Phlox. Im sure they miss him very much. Eric must have been in a lot of distress to have left these friends behind. To have left us all behind.
Because we love Eric, because we wish we could have helped him and we wish to be of help to others, we are asking you to make donations to a crisis center in lieu of flowers.
If Eric were writing this hed say, "In lieu of flowers, keep my tool box in order, recycle my aluminum cans, and make sure you have a good supply of Milk Bone Dog Biscuits."
Eric is survived by his wife, Roxanne (Kantz) of Janesville; sons: Rupert Goodrich of Janesville and Jamie Taylor of Janesville; mother, Betty Goodrich of Mankato; sister Annette (Rich) Schendel of Janesville; his three best friends: Willie, Skipper and Phlox; other relatives and friends.
He is preceded in death by his father, Russell; a child in infancy, and a brother in infancy.