Obituary of Geoffrey Walter Urch

Geoffrey died peacefully in his sleep on July 7th. Geoffrey was born in Cleveland, Ohio; affectionately nicknamed, “Dopper Stopper” (the fastest crawler on Earth – Dopper could not be stoppered) the cutest bouncing baby boy in Ohio, born to a loving mother and father, sister and brother. Geoffrey was the youngest of three siblings, his loving sister Suzanne was the oldest and his adoring brother Sidney was his middle brother. Don and Louise Urch, Geoffrey’s caring parents, truly treasured their three children. Geoffrey’s father was a NC Programmer and Machinist for Pesco & Sunstrand, and Geoffrey’s mother stayed at home to keep house, crochet/knit and raise their three children. Geoffrey made a decision to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior at age 9, and was attending church in his early teens. All three children accepted Jesus as their Savior and their mom and dad did too. During sister Suzanne’s college years, Geoffrey’s parents, Louise and Don separated and later divorced and remarried. Louise married Raymond Monroe (Hotel Operations Maintenance). Don married Ellen Slavik, who did not work outside the home but stayed at home to make a lovely home (now owns her own sewing and alteration business). Ellen brought with her a dear precious mother named Becky (loving stay home mother) and a beautiful daughter named Sharon (now a wonderful mother of two handsome and intelligent sons, married to a sweet man named Jim who drives school buses and she is on the management Team for a major restaurant). Geoffrey did not stay very long with either parent after the divorce, but quickly moved forward to create his own life. Geoffrey worked as a mechanic in the Air Force and retired after 19 years of service in the military finally specializing at the end of his career in refrigeration as a jet mechanic. As a young teenager, he held several jobs, and worked as an EMT for an ambulance company before joining the Air Force. Geoffrey has a small extended family; his brother Sidney was in the Army, was a truck mechanic and worked in operations for a major food manufacturing company, but never married and never had any children. Geoffrey’s sister Suzanne married for many years; and is a compassionate, deeply loving mother birthing two exceptionally intelligent sons/nephews (sister’s occupation, Computer System’s Analyst/Process Architect in Computer System’s Management for a large Aerospace Company, retired). Nephews, David Matthew Beech, a Operation Desert Storm Veteran, an Engineer on BNSF and the Union Local Chairman for BNSF Railroad in WA and Daniel Michael Beech, a recent Alpha Beta Kappa strait A student graduate and now HVACR Technician/Manager. Geoffrey married Theresa (currently working in Hotel Operations) in 1978 and helped raise her two children, named Charles (Naval recruit) and Diana (loving mother of three children). Geoffrey also took his mother Louise and stepfather Ray with his family to Japan for his tour of duty, and then his mother and stepfather stayed with Suzanne afterwards for many years. Geoffrey reportedly may have found a blood related son named Geoffrey Paul who is 31 and works in HVAC in North Carolina. Geoffrey Paul has two sons and two stepdaughters, a wife named Cybil and Geoffrey Walter recently got in touch by phone with Geoffrey Paul. Geoffrey Walter just met more of his extended family, for the first time in his life in December 2006, his two nephew’s children; Dan’s daughter Tiffany, and David’s sons, Zachary, and Seth. He also met David’s beautiful loving wife, Angie (college graduate working now in account management and still attending college) and Dan’s sweet girlfriend Sheri Elyse (stay home loving mother of Jacob and Tiffany). Geoffrey was so busy with his military career, that his sister Suzanne and nephews had not seen him since brother Sidney’s funeral in 1989 and then two short visits in 1995. Geoffrey was too busy to keep in touch, which everyone always understood and loved him anyway, and his sister Suzanne and his nephews were grateful to see him during the few short encounters he made time for in 1989, 1995 and one short visit at Christmas 2006. Geoff joined the Air Force in September of 1980, and served a tour of duty in Japan. He retired in 1999 with liver cirrhosis disease. He worked several jobs, the last being Propane gas delivery to customers in the Pensacola Florida area. Geoffrey always tried to keep his sense of humor through many personal struggles and loved his nickname, “Tigger” and his mother loved Pooh Bear’s other friend “Eeyore”.. Geoffrey would cleverly speak with an English accent, and would make people laugh. A humor quite similar to his loving father, who would often cheerfully say in an English accent: “Well, limey ol bean! By Jove, good show, what?” Geoff’s Dad would put on a red transparent vinyl 33 1/3 record of John Phillip Sousa’s marching band music, while Geoff’s mom was away shopping at the store (she hated loud music). Then he would inspire Geoffrey, Suzie, and Sidney to march merrily around the living room and rhythmically bang on pots and pans while their Dad would lead this cute band conducting music with a baton and rousing words like “hip, two, three, four, hip, hip, hip…to the left, march, to the right, march, hip, two, three four!” All three kids loved this rousing music and marching drill. Geoffrey’s father provided for wonderful trips to the World’s Fair in Seattle, vacations to numerous places including dearly loved Colorado, the Flying W Ranch and Mt. Evans. Geoffrey loved to play in the snow in Ohio, sled ride and built gobs of snowmen. He made the best snow forts and snowballs. Geoffrey’s father would plough all the neighbor’s driveways for free with his Jeep; awaking at 4AM to plough twenty driveways before he went to work at Pesco. Geoffrey’s father would include sister Suzie and boys in benevolent pursuits to help the less fortunate; by installing new doors and windows in the poorer community, purchasing all materials and asking for no money for his efforts. All three children helped their dad build on a new large room onto their home, build a brick fire pit, a brick driveway, etc. Geoffrey loved to play guitar, took pride in his mechanical abilities working on fighter jets and loved to collect large birds and wonderful dogs. He loved AOL, chatting online for hours on the native chat line and playing online games, etc. He often talked about his quote “true love”, Amberona Moon, their daughter Erica Moon , and Amberona’s sister Rebecca Moon and brother, Alehandro Moon, which was his native online family that he planned on joining right after Christmas. Geoffrey was a very private person, and displayed an intense independence; unwilling to let anyone help him and very reclusive for the past dozen years, very private. Suzanne encouraged him to get help for his liver disease when he arrived to visit his mom after her stroke, and even took him constantly to the hospital sometimes making him frustrated that she hovered and worried too much. He told his sister that he planned to move to Denver Colorado and stay with Amberona Moon, a Native Navajo Indian family right after Christmas 2006. He told Suzanne he only traveled to Washington to see his nephews, bestow a few gifts to them for Christmas, see his mother after her stroke and then continue his journey to be with Erica, Rebecca, Alehondro and Amberona Moon. Geoffrey had not lived with his wife for many years, although they are still married. He hated the weather in Washington, said it was too cold and rainy. Those who remember him from childhood knew his unique witty sense of humor and his English accent. He did an excellent impression of the professor in “Back to the Future” and loved to watch the Science Fiction channel on TV. He liked ER and had several of their movies. He was a movie buff, loved popcorn and loved apples too Rest peacefully Geoffrey, in your wonderful heavenly home; free from liver pain! We will always love you and never forget you. A dear friend of your sister’s shared a recent dream where she described you giving your brother Sidney a “High Five” in heaven; and she dreamed that the two of you are hanging out together having a wonderful time exploring the entire Universe. Your family will love you forever, even though we never had the chance to see you much, hear from you by phone or get to know you during your very busy lifetime. We all look forward to seeing you again for eternity in heaven and actually getting to spend some quality time with you. We all want to hang out with you for eternity. Instead of flowers, please contribute any donations in Geoffrey’s loving memory to the American Liver Foundation at the following link, https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=746b54 Please fill in the memorial information blanks, naming your gift memorial in loving memory to Geoffrey W. Urch, deceased. Or if you prefer mailing a gift in Geoffrey’s memory, please mail the gift to American Liver Foundation, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 603, New York, NY 10038-4810 and fill out this form at http://www.liverfoundation.org/downloads/alf_download_214.pdf to be mailed out US Mail. Please feel free to explore American Liver Foundation link for further awareness of liver disease. http://www.liverfoundation.org/ Thank you for your support regarding Geoffrey Walter Urch, loving son, father, stepfather, uncle and brother. We will truly miss him and we treasure his childhood memories! Service will be held 10:15 AM Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at Tahoma National Cemetery, 18600 SE 240th St., Kent, WA 98042. Arrangements by Edwards Memorial Center 253-566-1008