![]() “The mark he left on the Kansas Senate is rich and deep. “Wichita, and all of Kansas, is richer for his dedication, his service and his indomitable spirit,” said Sen. Gooch also served on the Joint Committee on Rules and Regulations and the Joint Committee on Economic Development. In the Senate, he served as the ranking minority member of the Federal and State Affairs and Transportation committees and was a member of the Elections and Local Government, Administrative Rules and Regulations, Local Government, Commerce, Economic Development, and Governmental Organization committees. Kansas is diminished today by his passing but is better for his having lived here.”Īmong Gooch’s accomplishments in the Legislature was helping pass a bill creating a prison alternative for some offenders in need of drug rehabilitation. “Rip rarely spoke during Senate debate, but when he spoke people listened. “I always admired and respected him and his remarkable American life full of service,” Schmidt said. At the time, Gooch was the state’s oldest serving senator.Īttorney General Derek Schmidt recalled serving alongside Gooch for four years. Then, from 1993 to 2004, Gooch served as a state senator, representing Wichita’s 29th District, until his retirement at age 80. There he developed relationships that led him to his first publicly elected position, as a Wichita City Council member. His daughter reflected on how, at a time when Black employees were pushed to the assembly line, Rip fought against the current, becoming one of Boeing’s first Black quality inspectors.Īfter opening his aviation business, where Gooch taught many future pilots and important executives to fly, he sold cars at Walt Lesline’s Buick dealership. His dreams of flying led him to apply to train under the famed Tuskegee Airmen, but his service in the Army did not allow him to go.Īfter serving, Gooch took flight lessons and earned his pilot’s license. 13, 1923, Gooch developed a fascination for aviation as he stared at airplanes flying overhead. “So, Rip used his flying skills to make extra money and, in the process, made strong friendships and connections beyond the color line, many of which would last a lifetime.”īorn in Ripley, Tennessee, on Sept. “If Rip would have been born a decade or two later, he would have been an airline pilot, but during those days, that wasn’t an option open to ‘Negroes,’” Bonita Gooch said in the memorial announcement. Gooch was the first Black person in Wichita to run his own fixed base aviation operation and was later inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame and the inaugural class of the Black Aviation Hall of Fame in Memphis. The Wichita staple was known for his passion for flight and work to open doors for Black men and women in the aviation industry. According to a memorial announcement written by his daughter Bonita, a service will be held Saturday, Dec. Gooch died Wednesday at age 98, according to a post on Jackson Mortuary’s website. TOPEKA - With memorial services to be held for the late Ulysses Lee “Rip” Gooch later this month, his former colleagues in the Kansas Legislature are recalling the legacy of the retired state senator and Wichita City Council member.
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