Leroy Goff hasn’t lived in Sumner for all of his 83 years, but he’s lived in the town long enough to remember when it was still farm land.
Goff and his aunt and uncle came to Washington in two Model T Fords in 1937, in the hopes of escaping economic hardship in North Platte, Neb.
“We parked the cars near a cliff in town,” he said. “We looked over the hills and I could see great big dairies. Everything was agriculture: some hops, lots of rhubarb, blackberries, raspberries and cherry orchards.”
Goff is one of Sumner’s most experienced local politicians, having held office since 1985. He’s been a councilman, deputy mayor and mayor of the town. During that time, he’s seen important issues that directly affected the lifestyle of the town, not the least of which was the significant increase in population density.
But before that, he was just a boy growing up with relatives seeking a friendlier market for their bakery.
Goff volunteered for the Navy during the war and served on the Omaha-class light cruiser USS Concord’s final campaign in the Asiatic theater.
After the war, Goff moved on to the Merchant Marine in which he frequently traveled across the Pacific to Japan and Korea. He spent much of the time directing cargo ships and steering clear of “diaper wagons,” his slang for passenger freighters.
He left the service in 1952 and moved on to a variety of odd jobs in Washington and Idaho, including at the Boeing plant, the mines of Idaho, a logging camp, St. Regis Hospital in Tacoma and Downtown Heating in Tacoma.
The veterans’ association pushed Goff into his first public service position in 1958, when he was appointed as civil defense chair for the city. He remained in non-elected positions until 1985, when the veterans encouraged him to run for a city council seat.
“Things were altogether different at the time,” he said. “City hall was on the second floor above the police station.”
The build up of the town happened around this time. Increasing taxes pushed out small-scale farmers, and as the canneries left town, the rest of the farmers went with them in search of a customer for their produce, Goff said. One of the most important issues the council dealt with in this period was the re-zoning of land, which brought the industrial zone to the south, where farmland used to be.
Goff has changed little. He lives in the same house he’s lived in since the late 1960s, just two blocks away from city hall. He walks that distance every day, and can be seen walking all over downtown Sumner. Every morning he runs through a constitutional of stretches to keep limber.
He’s active in his public life as well. Goff’s wife passed away in 1998, a victim of cancer. They had been married for 46 years at the time of her death, but Goff still counts up the years.
“We’re still married,” he said. “I married once, and I will never marry again.”
His loss encouraged him to become heavily involved in the Cancer Society, overseeing its move from Puyallup to Sumner, and this will be the first year he hasn’t been a part of the group. He has also been involved in the Cub Scouts, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Sumner Downtown Association, Red Cross and the board of the Lions 4 Kids House.
“You know I felt real fulfilled ever since I went into the Navy,” he said. “I volunteered to go into the military, and it seemed to me I could volunteer to make things better in the civilian world too.”
