Dr. Michael C. Goering

May 16, 1951 – April 29, 2024 Dr. Michael C. Goering, 72, of Topeka - known to his loyal optometry patients simply as “Dr. Mike” - passed away on April 29, 2024, departing a life of love including three children, three grandchildren, four siblings, and a wide circle of extended family and friends. Mike was born on May 16, 1951, in Newton, Kansas, the second of five children of Dr. Emil and Lavina (Ediger) Goering. Mike was a devoted optometrist, master gardener, adventurous chef, intrepid cocktail mixologist, joyful golfer, and lifelong golf ball hunter. Mike spent his earliest years in Newton, Lawrence, Kansas City, Mountain Lake, MN, and Pretty Prairie, KS. In his time growing up on the edge of Prairie Dunes Golf Course, he learned to hunt golf balls, spotting them in the rough even when no one else could. As a young man, Mike attended Union Valley Elementary and graduated with high honors from Buhler High School in 1969. In high school, he ran track and cross country and played basketball and golf. Mike completed his college work at Bethel College and Washburn University, graduating with a Doctor of Optometry degree from University of Houston College of Optometry in 1982. He prided himself in working from an early age, laboring at construction jobs in framing, concrete and roofing to help put himself through school, as well as medical jobs as an EMT and hospital orderly. His early business ventures included a golf course snack bar called the Pop Stand and a sandcast candle company. Dr. Mike was a man of many talents. He deeply loved both his large family and his patients, each of whom he counted as a friend. Mike gave his all to these endeavors, yet also found time to design and landscape the family’s backyard on Lakeside Drive into a truly magnificent garden, featuring limestone edging surrounding meticulously designed annual and perennial flower beds. He was especially fastidious about maintaining his many varieties of daylilies and irises. In the summer of 1994, while Mike’s kids were away on a four-week road trip through the Rocky Mountains, Dr. Mike spent nights and weekends surprising them by designing an elaborate play structure in the backyard, including a two-story climbable playhouse and adjoining swingset. One night when the kids phoned home from the mountains, Mike spilled the surprise, adding that he’d seen a duck in the backyard, coming to see what was happening. The playhouse and swingset provided the kids with many years of joy (along with a few head bumps and split lips). But the memory of the curious (if imaginary) duck still brings them smiles. Alongside beautifying the family’s backyard, Mike led the Beautification Committee of the Westboro Homeowners’ Association. His colored pencil sketches of landscape designs reflected a symphony of beauty and color in all four seasons. He was a creative genius in the garden. He could plan and talk at length about how foliage would turn color, change size, and leaf out differently over the span of a year. When the family moved out west of town to the countryside, he dutifully tended 180 black raspberry bushes. He devoted hours to tending a large in-ground swimming pool, complete with a diving board that offered him (and his brothers) a platform to demonstrate clown dives, “cannon balls,” belly flops, and more while overlooking his beloved Flint Hills and the Kansas prairie. In the backyard, the family regularly enjoyed watching the sunset from a large granite boulder that seemed to have a wide seat conveniently carved right into it. Mike lovingly dubbed it “Butt Rock,” which was to become a favorite place for pondering the great questions in life as well as its beautiful daily moments. A natural teacher, Mike frequently offered to teach his children (and anyone else who would listen) how to do a variety of things. Many of his methods were quite particular, and some unforgettable. When teaching his first daughter to drive a car, for example, Mike’s constant advice and correction was to aim high - to look out at the horizon in order to stabilize the wheel and avoid rattling from overcorrection. He taught patients as much as they could ever hope to know about the structure and function of the human eye, and he was especially precise on the optimal chopping of carrots and onions. Among his many other interests and talents were the physics of golf (including building his own clubs), Kansas basketball (especially defense strategies through his running commentary on the 1990s webforum “KUHoops” under the screen name “EyeHawk,” a pun on his profession); Don McLean music (especially “On the Amazon”); swing dancing; mixing cocktails with various types of tequila and mezcal; cooking food inspired by cuisines such as Cajun, Tuscan, Thai, and Mexican; collecting leather loafers via eBay and estate sales; and developing a rainbow wardrobe of Merino wool sweaters and jubilant Tommy Bahama-style button-down shirts (arranged passionately by color, pressed and ready to wear on a moment’s notice). Mike’s guacamole was legendary at family parties long before avocados and cilantro could be reliably sourced in Kansas. His fireplace mantel décor included the one remaining enormous sand candle from the short-lived candle manufacturing company he’d started with his siblings. Of his many talents and interests, Dr. Mike’s optometry practice was truly his legacy. Over 42 years, he connected with and cared for hundreds of friends and community members around the Topeka area and far beyond. Mike built his optometry practice from scratch the old-fashioned way, slowly but steadily, focusing his time and attention on meeting each patient’s unique needs. Dr. Mike prided himself on always putting his patients first. Over the early years of the practice, he regularly responded to late-night and weekend phone calls, often meeting a patient at the office on short notice to address an unexpected eye problem. So loyal were his patients that even those who moved far away from Topeka would occasionally come back to him for their routine eyecare. In 1999, with Dr. Mike’s support and encouragement, his youngest brother Jonas earned his optometry license. Over the next 25 years, Dr. Mike and Dr. Jonas greatly enjoyed working together, serving patients in southwest Topeka as Goering Family Optometry. Dr. Mike also loved his office staff dearly. He explained his secret to great hiring: He would leave a crumpled piece of paper on the interview room floor (next to a trash can). When the candidate arrived, Mike would deliberately wait a few minutes before entering the room to talk. By that time, he would know he had a winner if the interviewee had already picked up the crumpled paper and tossed it in the trash bin. Dr. Mike’s entire team was fiercely loyal and protective of him, and each one deeply cared for both patients and Dr. Mike with heartfelt attention (including confessing to close family members that for decades they’d switched half his coffee to decaf, to calm his jitters). After his father Emil suffered a near heart attack in May 2007, Mike learned that he had inherited heart problems. When diagnostic tests revealed major risks, he promptly underwent multiple heart bypass surgery in August 2007. Thankfully, the excellent medical care he received during and after the heart surgery allowed him to enjoy his life for nearly 17 more years. Among other things, Dr. Mike will be remembered for his fierce competitiveness at family bridge and board games; his love for Jayhawk basketball; his enthusiasm for driving his kids to and from college no matter the weather; and his legendary tendency to fall asleep in the midst of family holiday parties and almost every movie he ever watched – whether in theaters or reclining at home in his favorite blue chair. A week before his passing, Mike enjoyed celebrating his granddaughter Gia Luna’s first birthday in San Francisco. He was looking forward to partial retirement to spend more time with his growing family, including grandsons Orion and Walden, while still offering optometry services as needed to help support the practice. Dr. Mike was a loving, dedicated, brilliant, competitive, and creative spirit who left the world around him a better place. He was preceded in death (and no doubt greeted lovingly on the other side) by his parents, Emil and Lavina (Ediger) Goering, and his brother-in-law, Allan Tanner. He is survived by his three children, Megan Goering Mellin (Joe Mellin), K. Hobbes Entrikin-Goering, and Benjamin Goering (Gaby Moran); his four siblings, Beth Tanner, Les Goering (Linda), Tom Goering (Deb), and Jonas Goering (Sherry); three grandchildren, Orion Mellin, Gia Goering-Moran, and Walden Mellin; several nieces and nephews; and numerous cousins. We wish you every peace and happiness in resting, Dad. May you enjoy many more gin and tonics or bourbon and Cokes with Emil, watching the big KU basketball screen in the sky. We’ll keep aiming high. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, June 1 at 1:30 p.m. at the Governor’s Row House, 811 SW Buchanan St, Topeka, KS 66606. Tommy Bahama-style shirts (Mike’s favorite) are encouraged but not mandatory. A memorial service will take place at 1:30 p.m. with reception and storytelling to follow until 5:30 p.m. Stories, photos, or other mementos are welcomed by the family for the construction of a timeline around Mike’s life. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Dr. Michael C. Goering Memorial Fund (for a special project to honor Dr. Mike’s memory) at any Kaw Valley Bank location or Kevin Brennan Family Funeral Home, 2801 SW Urish Road, Topeka KS 66614.

Dr. Michael C. Goering

May 16, 1951 - April 29, 2024