Christian Goodrich

Christian LeGrand Goodrich

February 26, 1983 ~ May 22, 2021

Christian LeGrand Goodrich was born to Kevin and Jan Goodrich on February 26, 1983 in Fallon, Nevada.

He was well-known for his love of being dramatic, creating personas and enacting wild scenes as a variety of characters, which would enable him to later participate in drama classes and school plays. His parents described him as a “very happy” child. He got along with everyone, and easily made friends. During junior high and high school, his outspoken personality and quick wit brought him into numerous school programs, including the debate team, drama, and newspaper. Both he and his partner Marcus were unbeatable in the world of high school debate, debating opponents who unknowingly purchased his notes, or forcing opponents into taking positions against unorthodox topics, such as mind reading in government surveillance. In junior high, he participated in the school newspaper and fell in love with the process. In high school, his domain was realized as “Lord of the Back Page,” where he drew comics, wrote articles, and created a highly-humorous opinion article entitled “My Rant,” making the back page a consistent favorite of both students and faculty. He graduated from Kuna High School in 2001. Then began his ten-year journey working toward a bachelor’s degree.

He attended Brigham Young University - Idaho, with a major in Computer Science. After a few semesters, he moved to Tempe, Arizona, to pursue a degree in Computer 3D Animation at Collin’s College for two years. He then returned to BYU-I studying medical tech, before finally enrolled at Weber State University as a Computer Science major. He graduated in 2012 as a proud recipient of a bachelor’s degree. While at Weber State University, he interned for the IT department. Following graduation, he promptly obtained full-time employment working for Weber as a Web Developer, designing various systems and web elements used by faculty, staff, and the student body. Due to his work ethic and aptitude for programming languages, he quickly rose to the rank of Senior Software Architect in 2020. He was known by his coworkers for his ability to deliver projects quickly (with few, if any bugs). His absence will be felt across Weber State University’s various departments and student body. There is very little in the school's networking that hasn’t been affected by his work. Christian’s primary interests lay in role-playing games (RPGs), historical literature, art, watching terrible movies, and traveling. He was a regular participant in numerous weekly gaming (primarily D&D) groups, occasionally World of Warcraft, and various other strategy games. In all the games he played, he gained a reputation for coming up with incredibly powerful--and oftentimes hilarious--characters, but also for quickly growing bored with these same characters, forcing him to generate new characters on an almost monthly basis. His love of literature was as diverse as the games he played.

Each week when he visited family for Sunday dinner, he always had a new book in hand covering diverse topics and genres from Chernobyl, to H.P. Lovecraft, to the molemen living below New York City (it’s a thing). His interests lay in the unique and macabre, matching his personality. During his last few years of life, his artistic talent was great enough that one could have envisioned him in the career of an artist or animator save his dislike of commissions and deadlines. Christian created incredibly detailed and unique hand-drawn illustrations (and eventually 3D renderings) of every character he played in his gaming groups. During his final years, he took up 3D modeling and rendering, and bemoaned how easy modern software now made the process. He greatly enjoyed the tradition of horror movie nights with his long-distance and dear sister-in-all-but blood, Mallory. Christian loved watching movies of all kinds and had a reputation (at least among his family) for being notoriously picky and difficult to appease cinematically.

Among many things, he was an avid foodie and traveler. He prepared monthly cheese tasting nights with family and ventured out to eat at new restaurants or to return to his personal favorites, like Lucky Slice Pizza and Weller’s Bistro. He made a point of taking road trips to the states surrounding Utah and beyond, with his good friends Greg and Marie, his good friend Mallory, and with his family (most often to Yellowstone). His escapades found him stumbling across the Lone Star Santa's convention, having tea at a cafe alongside Stan Lee, spending the night in a teepee hotel, eating dinner on a bus called the Mobile Bistro, participating in a murder mystery aboard a 20th-century-themed train, attending Dapper Days in Disneyland, going to the Dickens Faire in San Francisco in full Victorian attire, and visiting the quaint location of Orcas Island where he pledged to move one day.

Christian passed away due to medical complications from a long-term illness on May 22, 2021. He is survived by both of his parents Jan and Kevin Goodrich; his grandfather, Howard Moore; his siblings, Ryan Goodrich (Amy), Colton Goodrich, and Erin (Andrew) Madsen; his three nieces and three nephews; many aunts, uncles, and cousins; and his friends Mallory Kubany, Greg Mumford, and Chihiro Tabata, all of whom were as close as family to him.

Funeral Services will be held on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, 2:00 p.m. at the Syracuse Stake building 3065 S Bluff Rd, Syracuse, Utah. Friends may visit family Monday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Lindquist's Syracuse Mortuary 869 S. 2000 W. Syracuse and Tuesday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the church.  Interment: Syracuse Cemetery 1250 S 1000 W, Syracuse, Utah.

Everyone is invited to attend any of these gatherings so that we may celebrate Christian’s life together.

For those unable to travel to the funeral, there will be a live broadcast at: http://mywebcast.churchofjesuschrist.org/syracuseutahsouthstake. A memorial website containing pictures and stories of Christian, as well as the ability to share your own memories, is currently live at http://christiangoodrich.com/. Please create an account (from a non-mobile device) and share your memories of Christian. Instructions can be found here.

Christian’s family offers their most sincere thanks to the many close friends and family that have provided meals, assistance, and condolences during this period of grieving. Due to Christian’s love of books, his family asks that in lieu of flowers, well-wishers should instead donate books to charities and organizations of their own choosing in his name.

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