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Chuck Goering
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Chuck was one of our closest friends for many many years. We first met him at the McDonald's cruise night when we bought our first show vehicle, which was a 1955 Studebaker Commander Hardtop. He would often show up in his 1963 Avanti R2/Powershift, with a little darker Champaigne Gold and Elk Interior. He was a man with many many stories when you came across him. His background included belonging to a hotrod club that was sponsored by Studebaker. They would call for performance parts from the company and the company would send them out so the hotrod club would in effect, go racing with them. He had stories that included sending one of the first Avanti back to the company due to problems with the car, which in turn put it on their "torture rack" before putting the car out to pasture. He was also pushing for full on sponsorship from the company, which included meeting Egbert himself, on the day Egbert received the call that automobile production in South Bend was shutting down.
As years went by, we had also purchased an Avanti as well, which was also a 63 Avanti R2/Four Speed, with Orange interior. In effect we had two vehicles within a few miles of each other, that on the outside looked exactly alike!! We used to joke about this when we followed each other to the shows in this respect. We used to buy parts from him, travel to SASCO with him, travel to the Orphan Car show and IRM with him, and basically share in the adventures with him to all points on the map. He was a great man to be around, as well as a wonderful traveling companion. What's interesting is we would have the Avanti, or the Lark out(at one time I had the rear up on jackstands trying to tighten a brake drum and embarrassingly couldn't find the cotter pin hole), and he would out of nowhere, just pull into the driveway to say hello and chat for awhile.
He joined the Blackhawk Chapter of SDC a few years later after we met him. He was also part of the AARC(which is an auto club here in the Aurora area). We went with each other to the meetings, and shared in the stories we had. We would see him at the May meets, the Zone Meets, and the International meets. Chuck would also travel to other cruise nights around the area, and other car shows in the region with his Avanti. He was no stranger to taking his Avanti anywhere and everywhere. He never let anything slow him down, not even the cancer that removed his leg a few years ago. Chuck would continue with his single leg, to work on his Avanti, as well as drive his car everywhere he wanted to go. This level of motivation is what I thought made for a very golden attribute that everybody can walk away with, as he never let anything slow him down.
We last saw him on Sunday when he was in the hospital. He was still talking to us about cars, which was fantastic. In fact he was getting ready to go to South Bend in the Avanti, when he fell ill. He watched me grow up over these years, and we shared in many of his adventures. He will be greatly missed, and a little era around this homestead has seemed to have passed .
Godspeed in your heavenly Avanti Mr. Goering, Godspeed, and make sure you get St. Peter to compare your beginning and end tollbooth timeslips for me, would ya .
May he indeed Rest in Peace
1964 Studebaker Commander R2 clone
1963 Studebaker Daytona Hardtop with no engine or transmission
1950 Studebaker 2R5 w/170 six cylinder and 3spd OD
1955 Studebaker Commander Hardtop w/289 and 3spd OD and Megasquirt port fuel injection(among other things)
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