Kenneth Albert Goodrich

October 19, 1919 - August 11, 2015

Kenneth Albert Goodrich passed away peacefully on Aug. 11, 2015. Family will greet friends from 9 to 9:45 a.m., Monday, Aug. 17, 2015 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Nelson Road Chapel. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. at the church. Interment will follow at Pioneer Memorial Gardens. Please sign the online guestbook at www.kayserschapel.com. Arrangements are in care of Kayser's Chapel & Crematory.

Kenneth was born at home in Naples, Utah on October 19, 1919, son of the late Albert Goodrich and Melinda Starkie Goodrich. He grew up in Vernal, Utah, where he loved to fish and hunt and ride his bike. He farmed with his family and at the age of 16, he was custom harvesting many acres of grain throughout the Ashley Valley with a five-foot tractor-pulled combine his father had purchased in 1935.

He graduated from Uintah High School with top honors, earning a scholarship that allowed him to attend the agricultural college in Logan, Utah. He left school after two semesters to pursue his dream of farming.

Kenneth joined the National Guard in 1940 and served 58 months in World War II in the South Pacific in the army corps of engineers, eventually attaining the rank of captain. While in the army, he learned the craft of carpentry, which eventually led to a part-time career in home building. Before the irrigation water arrived in the Columbia Basin, he, his father and his brother-in-law, Calvin Martinsen, built many homes in Salt Lake City and Moses Lake, all of which are still standing!

He and his father had read about the Grand Coulee irrigation project in the Western Farm Life magazine and took a trip in 1938 to Neppel (Moses Lake), where they purchased their home units that are still being farmed by his son and grandson today. They settled in Moses Lake in February of 1951 and moved to the farm when the irrigation water arrived in 1953.

Kenneth married Betty Lou Nelson in 1953 and they raised their two children, Ken and Mary Lou on the family farm. Kenneth was actively involved in the development of cement ditch lining and he spent many long hours during the farming season pouring cement irrigation ditches, laying over 1.5 million linear feet in the years from 1957 to 1974.

He retired from the farm at the age of 70 and spent the next 20 years turning wooden bowls on a lathe. It was a skill he had learned in his high-school woodshop class taught by his father and he expanded that skill into an art. Kenneth was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving faithfully and honorably in many positions. He was a man of quiet convictions and faith and lived his life with integrity.

He is survived by his son, Kenneth N. Goodrich and his wife Brenda, four grandchildren, Emily (Jeff) Johnson, Elliott (Kayla) Goodrich, Claire (Cameron) Haynes, Marshall Goodrich, great-granddaughter, Elsie Lou Goodrich and a sister, Grace Jensen.

Besides his parents, Kenneth was preceded in death by his wife, Betty Lou, his daughter, Mary Lou Goodrich, and his sister, Lenore Martinsen.