Insightful and erudite to his final days, Reverend Leonard Lowell Goering (85) gracefully left this world on October 16, 2023. He was surrounded by family in his home in Portland, OR. Leonard was born in McPherson, KS, in 1938 to Ellis and Esther Goering. He grew from a child who marveled at the size of cows on the family farm and delighted in the feeling of mud squishing between his toes into a young man whose interests ranged from 4H to football to speech and debate. He graduated from Moundridge High School in 1956 and shortly thereafter married his classmate Imogene Ediger. He began college at Bethel College in Newton, KS, before moving to Evanston, IL, where he completed a baccalaureate degree in Philosophy at Northwestern University. He and Imogene had two children, Preston and Angela, before parting ways in 1969. Following his graduation from Northwestern, Leonard began working in the field of nuclear medical technology, but he was soon called to the church, which he had come to believe in as an agent of human healing and social change amidst the civil unrest of the 1960s. He obtained an M. Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary in 1973 and was awarded the Bernadine Orme Smith Fellowship for academic excellence, which he used to pursue doctoral studies in philosophy and religion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1977. As a man of uncommon insight, existential inquiry was at the heart of his ministry, and its foundation was the belief that truth is revealed when human beings in all their complexity dwell in authenticity with one another and the world. While serving as a Campus Pastor with University Christian Ministries at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Leonard met Jane Kurtz, with whom he shared 46 years of adventures. They were married in 1979. After the birth of their first child, David, Leonard accepted a call to be pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Trinidad, CO. Two more children, Jonathan and Rebekah, were born there. In 1990, Leonard and his family moved to Grand Forks, ND, where he served as a campus pastor and chaplain and taught in the Philosophy Department at the University of North Dakota. Leonard’s retirement from UND in 2002 led him back to Kansas. He and Jane lived in Heston until his elderly parents passed, and then they moved to Lawrence to be near his son Jonathan, his daughter-in-law Hiwot, and their two children, Ellemae and Noh. During this time, Leonard continued to work with churches of various denominations in interim ministry and as a consultant. In 2011, he moved to Portland, OR, where Jane’s family lives. From Wittgenstein and Heidegger to sailing, camping, and motorcycles, Leonard’s curiosity was never still. He followed it around the world, participating in an archaeological excavation in Israel, serving as a delegate at an intercultural philosophy initiative in China, and drinking yak butter tea with farmers in Tibet. He globetrotted with Jane, including trips to Japan, Indonesia, the Persian Gulf, the Philippines, and every corner of Europe and Africa. Two countries in particular touched his heart—Guatemala, which he visited on a listening journey with Westminster Presbyterian Church, and Ethiopia, where Jane grew up and where he spent many weeks across many years. He supported organizations and individuals in Ethiopia, included befriending a young man from Lalibela whom he supported through high school and college and into a career in the tourism industry. In a full and varied life, he considered these experiences of what he called the wonder and majesty of the world to be some of the most meaningful. “To turn up in the world, to be human in a garden that sustains life, is a gift,” Leonard once wrote. “How are we to respond? We can only live, gratefully and authentically, trusting the gift and expressing a life that graciously reveals love and truth.” Leonard was preceded in death by his parents, Ellis and Esther, and his sister Lynette. He is survived by his wife, Jane; his children, Preston (Deborah) Goering, Angela (Bruce) Miller, David Goering, Jonathan (Hiwot Zegeye) Goering, and Rebekah (Sean) Mitsein; his grandchildren, Bethany, Katherine, Mary, Rachel, Ellemae, and Noh; and his siblings, Charlene, Kirby, Timothy, and Elizabeth. Leonard had a lifelong commitment to peacemaking that included caring about ways that humans treat the earth. The family invites donations in his honor to two global organizations. In both cases, small amounts of money will make a big difference. As long as "Leonard Goering" appears somewhere in a memo line or drop-down, your gift will celebrate his memory. To support the printing and distributing of local language books that show young people in Ethiopia how they can be part of saving the planet, gifts can be made to Open Hearts Big Dreams: https://openheartsbigdreams.org/conservation/ To support justice efforts in Guatemala, online donations can be made to Westminster Presbyterian Church: https://onrealm.org/WestminsterPres74275/-/form/give/now Checks can be mailed to this address: Westminster Presbyterian Church 1624 NE Hancock Portland, OR, 97212