Alicia Naylor Goehring

Alicia Naylor Goehring

Fairfield

Alicia Naylor Goehring, 61, of San Francisco, Calif., died on Aug. 23, 2022, in the arms of her loving husband, Jerry, after a brief and courageous battle with cancer.

Alicia was born Sept. 15, 1960, to Jack and Alice Naylor. She graduated from Burlington High School in 1978. She received B.A. in history/business from Coe College and her M.A. in urban and regional planning from Ball State.

Alicia married Jerry Goehring in 1981. He survives her as do her three sisters, Jan (Peter) Allan and Pat (Bill) Larsen, both of DePere, Wis., and sister, Debbie (Andy) Opiekun of Burlington; brother-in-law, Duane and his family of Destin, Fla.; along with several nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Alicia had several remarkable achievements in her career starting with being the first director of the Burlington National Main Street Program. She went on to be director of the Bureau of Downtown Development, director of the Division of Historical Preservation, and held various director positions at the Wisconsin Historical Society during her 32 years in Wisconsin. She then took a “retirement job” in San Francisco as executive director/CEO of the California Historical Society.

A Celebration of Life will be held in San Francisco. A Celebration of life will be held Saturday, Sept. 17, with visitation starting at 9:30 a.m. and services at 10:30 a.m. with a luncheon to follow, at 3940 Division St., Burlington.

Her husband wrote: “She was largely accepting and unemotional throughout her treatment, which in turn inspired her doctors and surgeons to see how strong she was. In addition, given the fact that she worked hard to preserve history and promote the unfettered access to history education that influenced millions of people over time, I like to think that her unfinished work and comments should, in fact, be left to the imagination."

Memorial gifts can be made to the Alice Naylor Camp Wyoming Scholarship, First Presbyterian Church, 321 N Fifth St., Burlington, IA 52601.