Michael Alfred Goolsbey

Michael Alfred Goolsbey of Georgetown, Texas died of bone cancer on Nov 30, 2024. He was 84.

Michael (‘Mike’) was born on Nov 4, 1940 in Breckenridge, Minnesota to Alfred Goolsbey and Helen Goolsbey (Trimner) of Lidgerwood, North Dakota. Mike grew up in Lidgerwood with his younger brother Patrick (‘Pat’). His father owned the Mobil service station and his mother taught in a one room schoolhouse near Wyndmere. As a teenager, Mike helped his father by delivering heating oil to the area farmers and learned to rebuild cars with his best friend Ronnie Blazek.

After graduation, Mike went to North Dakota State University in Fargo to study Electrical Engineering. After graduating in 1962 he accepted a job with IBM in Rochester, Minnesota and married Mary Novotny in 1963. Mike and Mary grew up as next door neighbors and classmates in Lidgerwood but it was only after reconnecting in Fargo that they decided to make a lifetime together. On Feb 14, 1966 their only child Keith Goolsbey was born in Baltimore, Maryland while they were on temporary assignment with IBM.

Mike worked for forty years at IBM in the processor architecture group for the System/3, System/38 and AS/400 small mainframe computers. Mike won several invention awards with IBM and retired to Sun City in Georgetown, Texas to be closer to his son and his family. Mike loved fast cars and fast snowmobiles his whole life and was an avid fan of road racing and short track dirt racing. He always enjoyed tearing down and souping up his street cars and snowmobiles from the moment he drove them off the lot. Mike and Mary enjoyed several cross country road trips with Keith before retirement and many corvette cruises during retirement. Mike and Mary enjoyed an active retirement together in Sun City with their N13 neighbors and their close friends from IBM Richard and Joyce Dorr.

Mike will be remembered as a private man who was hardworking and kind, dedicated to and beloved by his entire family. He was survived by his brother Pat, his wife Mary, his son Keith and daughter-in-law Elaine Goolsbey, and his four grandchildren Michael, Emma, Anna, and Daniel Goolsbey.