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Memories of Joe Go from MCO

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This week’s column was intended to be a Fountain HiIls History Lesson about the news of 1977.

But then my son, Brent, called with news of the passing of my friend, “Joe Go” Goyena.

The community and I personally have lost some good friends and influential people who contributed their time in the past for the betterment of Fountain Hills during its formative years.

Among them are Fountain Hills Civic Association President Mike Petrone, small business activist Fay Gridley, School Superintendent Walt Dunne, Chamber of Commerce Special Events Coordinator and former Mayor Sharon Morgan and another former mayor and public art advocate Jerry Miles.

Now we add Joe’s name to that list. Why, some of you may ask?

Joe showed up at my office one day in December 1980. He had just moved from his previous residence in Brooklyn, N.Y.

He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

“I was told you know everything about this town,” he said. “If so, then I want to get to know you.”

He told me he had just moved to Fountain HiIls and had gone to work for North American Van Lines in the Valley.

“It’s the business I know best.” He said he had worked for Mayflower in Brooklyn and had won many awards as their top salesman.

Getting back to his original question, I responded by saying, “Well, I don’t know if I know everything about the community, but it’s my job to know as much about it as I can. That’s how we serve our readers. I go to meetings most nights during the week.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Joe said. I thought he was about ready to leave. He did walk out of my office, but then he came back and said, “I’m just like Columbo. I always come back with another thought. I also sang professionally back in New York. If you don’t mind, I’d like to sing for you.”

He proceeded to sing “The Impossible Dream” from the Broadway play “Man of La Mancha.” I was surprised that he sounded pretty good. He told me he was available for any singing jobs I might know of.

Over the years, Joe would occasionally stop in my office to seek advice on a particular subject. In 1984, he called me up and said he had to see me because he was considering a career change. He said he had several offers to go into real estate. One was from a firm that is no longer in existence on the Avenue of the Fountains. The other was from MCO Realty.

I told him if it were me, I’d definitely go with MCO. They are a subsidiary of the developer, so you know they’ll always be here. I think that was one of the few times he didn’t make the Columbo reference. He rushed right out and went directly to MCO Realty.

The change in careers was obviously a good one for him and his family. In his 23 years in real estate, he sold over $336 million worth of property. His sales team received Sales Team of the Year at MCO Realty for 13 of his 14 years there. He was successful because his approach to selling real estate was to do so ethically and provide good customer service long after the sale.

For years, he hosted an annual dinner party for clients at the Community Center. In fact, the Goyena team was the first group to host an event in the facility.

The event also gave him an opportunity to sing to a captive audience.

A memorable happening at one of the dinners was when Joe Go and Sheriff Joe Arpaio went to the microphone and sang a duet of “My Way.” They brought the house down.

Somewhere along the line, Joe found the power of advertising. He became a heavy user of The Times and the Western States family of publications.

For years, he ran a full-page color ad on the back cover of the Community Guide.

Joe became heavily involved in the community’s service clubs. He became a member of the Sunset Kiwanis and was a familiar face at their booth in the two art festivals. He heard that the Noon Kiwanis was no longer going to sponsor the Easter egg hunt for the children of the community. The event was called the Eggstravaganza. It had simply gotten too big for that club to handle. Joe came to the rescue, and he sponsored the event every year since.

As a Kiwanian, he organized a Fountain of Youth Club which provided trips and activities for local teens. He was a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors. He often wore his red coat and white pants while he was conducting business. He felt that this could give more exposure to the organization. He was also a big supporter of the Thanksgiving Day parade.

He marched with his fellow Ambassadors until he could no longer do the mile and a half walk. He and his wife, Carol, then volunteered to be announcers at the parade. For 13 years, he was also the town Santa Claus in the parade.

For all their volunteer activities and contributions to the community, Joe and Carol were named the 1995 Chamber Business Persons of the Year.

He and Father Tot at the Catholic Church of the Ascension formed the first AA group in Fountain Hills. Joe was a proud member for 58 years.

Joe never got directly involved with town politics. Of course, he had plenty of opinions, but he rarely expressed his viewpoint in public. He would always give financial assistance to school issues.

Capping off all his honors were two that he was most proud of. The first was being named one of the top 20 volunteers during the first 20 years of the community. For all of this, he was inducted into the Lower Verde Valley Hall of Fame in 2008.

Joe, we’re all going to miss you. Here is a thumbs up for all your contributions to the community. Your slogan says it all and that is “We Get Results Because We Care!”