John Goodmiller
John Kenzel Goodmiller, age 82, formerly of Fincastle, died Friday, March 3, 2023, at Harmony of Chantilly, Herndon, VA. He was the husband of the late Joan Mary Goodmiller.
Our father, John Kenzel Goodmiller, (Ken to anybody who knew him) was born on January 7th, 1941, in Norman, Oklahoma. Home of the OU Sooners. Having lived there all his life, he was indoctrinated into the OU way of life (“BOOMER SOONER!”) and went to college there as well earning a bachelor’s degree.
During the summers in between years at college he would travel all over the US for summer jobs. Wisconsin, Main, Connecticut to name a few of the places. This helped light the fire for his love of traveling. Right out of College, he joined the Peace Corps. It was here that he was able to travel to India and see another side of the world. Which fueled his love of traveling even more. While in India, he had a ruptured appendix which forced him to cut his time short.
After recovering from the appendix, he made his way to California on a lark. While there someone he randomly met thought he would be a good fit for her niece, Joan. They went on two dates, and he proposed. 10 weeks later they were married. And their whirlwind romance turned into almost 50 years of marriage when she passed in 2017. He grew up a fan of Sooner Football and hated their instate rivals, the Oklahoma State Cowboys. So, when he got a job in the DC Area, becoming a fan of the Redskins (and their bitter rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys) was a perfect match. Dad worked for the GAO for almost 30 years. He loved to say that he was able to save the government way more than he cost them, so he felt he did a great job while there. He even saved the government $6mil by one investigation alone. While working there, he and Joan raised 4 awesome children. And even though he worked a full-time job, he always made time to go to all their practices and make every game & recital. He even set his schedule up so that he could go in at 7am to be home by 4pm just to make sure he could get to everything. (Taking a nap in the middle of the living room floor before dinner to catch up on any missing sleep)
After retiring from the government, they moved to the Fincastle, Virginia area, where they lived for another 26 years. Having been a devout Christian his entire life, he worked his way into being the preacher at Covington Church of Christ. After our mother passed away in February of 2017, he continued preaching at Covington for another 3 years. Until he finally gave into our begging of him to move back up to Northern Virginia so that we could be closer to him and see him more often. Thankfully, we were able to do that. Ken is survived by four children, Melinda, Jimmy, Aaron and Natasha, 9 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.
A funeral service will be conducted at 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at Covington Church of Christ with Kent Blevins officiating. Interment will follow in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
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