Featured Warhawk November 2019: Jeremy Gooch

It seems to me that poverty is an eyeglass through which one may see his true friends. – Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

You might ask why we’re kicking off our Featured Warhawk interview of Jeremy Gooch with a quote from Canterbury Tales.

No, it’s not to bring back nightmares of your Sophomore English class finals. (Though I can’t be held responsible if it does.)

We’re bringing back Chaucer for this special edition of Featured Warhawk because that’s the backdrop of my (Cory Jurentkuff) friendship with Jeremy -- from sitting side-by-side in Mrs. Kirby’s class to working together frequently these days on fun stuff for our fellow alum.

In short, our friendship hasn’t skipped a beat.

But, if we’re rolling deep, let’s put it this way… Like Chaucer (and Mrs. Kirby) would appreciate: Years of time apart (poverty) has revealed a renewal in friendship (the eyeglass).

With that, I give you our Q&A with Jeremy, a lifelong friend who I’ve had the great pleasure to reconnect with this year.

How would you describe your life in 10 words or less?

An average guy who is very lucky.

Would you rather win an Olympic medal, an Academy Award or the Nobel Peace Prize?

Nobel for sure. As I’ve gotten older, it has become more apparent to me that changing someone’s life for the better is the most noble thing a person can do.

If you could spend the day with any Warhawk, past or present, who would it be and why?

It’s not just one person. I’d like to sit down with anyone who I may have treated poorly in some way to let them know that I have grown, changed and matured beyond high school. Now that I’m a dad, I have a greater appreciation of this and strive to teach my daughter to be as kind and welcoming as possible to everyone.

What’s on the top of your bucket list?

I don’t have any crazy bucket list ideas, but something I really want to do is take my daughter to London to meet everyone who had an impact on my wife and me. We made some incredible friends when we lived there, and that city really changed us in so many ways. All for the better.

What JMHS teacher or coach made the biggest impact in your life and how?

This is a tough one. Certainly the one that I have thought about the most is Mrs. Kirby. If you never had her as a teacher, it will be hard to explain. If you had her as a teacher, you will totally get it. She was very quirky and extremely passionate. It was my classmates, though, that really made the class. Cory Jurentkuff, Justin Mink, Mike Pearl, Jenn Jobe Yee… the list goes on. We had a lot of fun in that class, and more than any other, it’s that one that I think of when I think of my time at Madison.

Gotta '94 Warhawk you'd like to see profiled here? Send us a tip at jmhsclassof94@yahoo.com.