Obituary of Jene Montgomery Goshaw

DURHAM - Jene Montgomery Goshaw died on June 30th, 2015, in Durham, North Carolina, with her beloved husband and two children by her side. Jene was born in Clinton, Iowa, on May 6, 1943. She spent most of her childhood in Appleton, Wisconsin. When she was in high school, her family moved to West Bend, Wisconsin, where she graduated from West Bend High School. She attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, for two years, and then transferred to The University of Wisconsin, in Madison, from which she graduated with a BS in Education. In Madison, she met her husband, Alfred Goshaw, who was a graduate student in physics at the time. They married on September 3, 1966, and their marriage launched a lifetime together filled with travel, academia, family and friends. Jene and Al moved to Princeton, New Jersey, for three years, and then on to Geneva, Switzerland, for four years. In 1973, they moved to Durham, North Carolina, because Al took a teaching job at Duke University. Jene taught in the Orange County schools for a number of years. She eventually returned to school and earned her MBA in 1982. Shortly afterwards, she began her career as a financial representative with VALIC, where she worked for twenty-five years. She enjoyed her job immensely, because of both her VALIC co-workers and her numerous clients, many of whom were Duke employees. Jene's business career ended abruptly when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. She fought the disease the way she lived her life, with courage and fierce determination. Her illness did not affect her zest for life, as she continued to seize every opportunity to learn, travel, volunteer and spend time with friends and family. She enjoyed tennis, bridge, music lessons, and her many neighborhood groups, and volunteered on her church endowment committee, as a docent, and in the Chatham public schools. Jene treasured her Norwegian and Irish heritages, her Midwestern roots, and her Lutheran faith. She also loved her Chapel Hill and Duke University communities. She was preceded in death by her parents, James Donald Montgomery and Eunice Eloise (Hatteberg) Montgomery, and her sister, Marilyn Pitzner. She is survived her husband, Alfred T. Goshaw, her daughter Christina Goshaw Hinkle and son-in-law David J. Hinkle, her son, David G. Goshaw, her grandchildren, Annabel, Calvin, and Katie, her sister, Diane Montgomery, and six nieces and nephews (Julie, Paul, Jim, Elizabeth, Eric and Sonya). A private family burial service was held on Saturday, July 4th. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in Chapel Hill, on Saturday, July 18th, 2015, at 2 p.m. Memorial donations may be made in Jene's name to the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Endowment Fund, 300 E. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514, or to the CORA Food Pantry, PO Box 1326, Pittsboro, NC 27312