Ardin Goss, 76, Former U.S. Navy Officer, Credit Union Employee Dies

FAIRFAX, VA — Ardin Goss, 76, a former officer with the U.S. Navy and a 2002 alumnus of Leadership Fairfax, died on Jan. 13.

Goss was born to David and Joan Goss on Nov. 30, 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland.

For several years, Goss and his family moved around the U.S. due to his fathers career in the military and later employment at the Boeing Corporation. His sister Michelle (Shelly) arrived when Goss was 5.

Eventually, the family of four settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where Alden finished his high school, graduating in 1965 from St. Louis Priory School.

Attending the University of Michigan on an ROTC scholarship from the U.S. Navy, Goss graduated with a B.S. in physics.

As a supply corps officer in the Navy, Goss served at various duty stations, including Washington, D.C. It was there that he met Anne Marie Plunkert. They married in St. Louis on Nov. 24, 1973. The couple then traveled to Monterey, California, where he earned two masters degrees — operations research and applied mathematics —from the Naval Post Graduate School.

With stops at Guam; Rota, Spain; Port Hueneme, California; the couple then returned to the Washington, D.C. area. Along the way they welcomed two children, Andy and Mary.

On Nov. 30, 1995, Goss ended his naval career as a captain with the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. From 1995 to 2008, he worked as a chief information officer at Navy Federal Credit Union.

Goss and Plunkert retired to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, where he served on the Board of Langley Residential Services, the Wintergreen Mountain Music Festival and contributed to other activities as a member of St. John the Evangelist in Waynesboro.

Goss is preceded in death by his parents; his sister's husband, Richard Wells, and his brother-in-law, Jack Plunkert.

He is survived by his wife Anne Marie, and children, Andy, Mary, and Mary’s husband Chris Boggs, all of the Northern Virginia area; brothers-in-law Tom (Kathy) Plunkert of St. Louis and Bill (Donna) Plunkert of Virginia; sister-in-law Marianne Plunkert (wife of the late Jack Plunkert) of North Carolina; his sister Michelle Wells (wife of the late Richard Wells) of Dallas, Texas, and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking donations be made in Goss' memory to either St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Waynesboro or Langley Residential Services in Vienna.

A funeral service took place Tuesday morning at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Waynesboro.

A viewing will take place on Thursday, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home in Fairfax. A Christian burial with military honors will be held at 12 noon, on Friday, also at Fairfax Memorial.