As of the morning of May 17 ^th , 2022, Gayle Arthur Goold of Paxton, IL passed away at Carle Hospital at the age of 76. He was in the continual embrace of his children and wife.

Gayle was a prairie boy, through and through, with the kind of unyielding blue eyes and hay-colored beard only such a land bears; he was wholly of the land, too, working with the U of I, Illinois Stewardship Alliance, and Illinois Sustainable Ag Network to ensure crops kept cropping up in their ordinary, miraculous way.

When brushing his children's hair in the mornings before heading out to the fields and ushering them to the bus, he would sing a low, loose song without the burden of rhythm, rhyme, or even discernible tune, just following the previous note to the next until the tangles gently yielded.

Never—not once—did he leave his armchair for cover during an active tornado warning, and he relayed the story of showering to a full sud in the warm summer rain as a kid; weather was weather, and its feral decisions he greeted without spite once stormed out.

Gayle had momentum, and damn was it an event to be in the vehicles he drove, inspiring questions of technique and testing passengers' faith the whole way from every A to every B.  He taught his daughter how to bottle feed an orphaned  lamb with a glass root beer bottle, his eldest son how to drive stick, and his younger son how to spell three-letter words.  Every Mothers' Day, he gave his wife yellow begonias in the same terracotta pot.

Alzheimer's came, hanging around for over a decade.  Still, he got what we all want at some level when trying to sail out past our imaginable bounds: something soft and warm:  something enough to leaven another morning.

Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Saturday, May 21, 2022, at Baier Family Funeral Services, 406 E. Pells Street, Paxton.

A private family burial will be held at Avoca Twp. Cemetery.

Gayle was born January 29, 1946, in Fairbury the son of Jim and Jean Magee Goold.  He married Nancy Baird July 30, 1983 in East Lansing, Michigan.  She survives.

Along with his wife, Nancy, he is survived by children Ben (Christie Barchenger) Goold of Olympia, Washington, Elizabeth "Annie" Goold of Champaign, David Goold of Los Angeles, California; one granddaughter, Ayla; two sisters Janet Pisha of State College, Pennsylvania, Sara-Beth Hostetter of Fairbury; two brothers Robert Goold of Meriden, Kansas and Bill Goold of Bozeman, Montana.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Gayle graduated from Fairbury High School and from Cornell College, Iowa with a Bachelor of Science Degree in History and Economics.

He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Paxton and a founding member of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance.

Gayle enjoyed gardening, bird watching and traveling.

In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association or an organization of the donor's choice.

Memories and condolences may be shared with the family at www.baierfuneralservices.com .