Esteban Irungaray Goni

A Rosary and Mass of Christian Burial will be said for Esteban Goñi at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 1515 Baker Street Bakersfield, California on Friday December 30, 2011 at 9:30 am. Interment will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Park. Public viewing will be on Thursday, December 29, 2011 from 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm at the Hillcrest Memorial Park Chapel.

Esteban was the second of seven children born to Leoncio Goñi and Felisa Irungaray Goñi on August 3, 1948 in the town of Oronoz in the Valle del Baztan in the Basque Country. At the young age of sixteen, Esteban went to Germany to work in a factory and returned to Oronoz after just over a year. On October 6, 1966, Esteban immigrated to the United States to become a sheepherder under a Western Range contract in the central California valley, first working for Tomás Anchordoqui and later for Ben Puget. After becoming a legal resident of the United States, Esteban left the sheep industry and came to Bakersfield in the spring of 1971 where he lived and worked at the Noriega Hotel for the Elizalde family. Esteban was very motivated and determined to make his own way in our land of opportunity and in 1972 he started his own gardening business which he successfully operated until his retirement in June 2011.

Esteban married his wife Ofelia Alonso on September 28, 1974. Together they purchased their home on Olive Drive where the raised their four children Teresa, Susana, Marisol, and Jose. Esteban was very proud of his family and his home and loved to share the fact that “he had paid his mortgage completely off in less that five years” and then celebrated that accomplishment with a dinner with his family at Woolgrowers.

Esteban was a man that loved his work and took pride in his business. He was loved by many customers that were loyal to him from day one until his retirement. In addition to running his business, Esteban was a successful real estate investor. He purchased a number of homes and apartments over the years; an accomplishment he was very proud of.

Esteban was a member of the Kern County Basque Club for nearly forty years. He took so much pride in being a part of his Basque heritage and he worked tirelessly to promote and preserve the rich Basque culture here in Kern County. Esteban served on the Kern County Basque Club board of directors for ten years during two different terms. Even when he was not on the board, you could always find Esteban heading up the barbecuing crew at all the Basque Club functions. Tending to the cooking of the meat was one of his passions. Esteban had an unending love for Basque handball and his whole life was spent as an avid player and fan of the game. Even before the handball court was built at the Basque Club in 1978, you could find Esteban playing on Sundays at the court at the Noriega Hotel. The Basque Club meant the world to Esteban and his wife appropriately called it “his other home”.

Esteban was also an avid fisherman. For forty years Esteban would fish the streams above Johnsondale. In later years, he fished those same streams with his brother Martin, his son Jose, and his grandsons Joseba and Xabi. There they camped, ate, made campfires, told stories and of course fished. Esteban was a great storyteller and some of the best stories were told on these fishing trips in the mountains that he loved. He was so proud to take his grandsons fishing and share his love of nature in those mountains and streams. He took particular pride in teaching his grandsons how to catch a “basco” limit.

Esteban is survived by his beloved wife of thirty seven years Ofelia Goñi, his daughter Teresa Iparraguirre and husband Stephen, daughter Marisol Ward and husband Jeremiah, daughter Susana, and his son Jose Goñi, grandsons Joseba and Xabier Iparraguirre and granddaughter Adison Ward all of Bakersfield. He is also survived by his eldest brother Martin Goñi of Bakersfield, his special cousin Jesús Goñi of Reno, Nevada and three brothers, Jose Manuel, Jose Mari, and Vicente; two sisters, Sagrario and Teresa and many nieces and nephews in the Basque Country. Other survivors include his brothers and sisters in law and their families. To help escort Esteban on his next journey into heaven will be his friends and Pallbearers Javier Braña, Jean-Pierre Dalia, Jean-Pierre Daramy, Antonio Elizalde, Jesús Onaindia, and Jose Recondo.

Agur Esteban, beti maite!