ESCONDIDO: Former teacher honored at foundation fundraiser

By JOHN RAIFSNIDER - For the North County Times | Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:57 PM PDT ∞

A poster hangs in the gym at San Pasqual High during a charity basketball game held Thursday at the school to honor Kim Goetz, a popular Special Education teacher on campus who died March 17 while students and staff were on Easter break. Officials at the school estimated more than 750 people attended the event. (JOHN RAIFSNIDER / For The North County Times)

San Pasqual High School students Rachel Crosthwaite, left, and Kelly Taylor model shirts made for a charity basketball game held Thursday at the school to honor Kim Goetz, a popular Special Education teacher on campus who died March 17. (JOHN RAIFSNIDER / For The North County Times)

ESCONDIDO ---- Tears welled quickly in the eyes of San Pasqual High School Principal Erin Smith as she stood in the lobby of the campus gymnasium Thursday evening and recalled in glowing terms Kim Goetz, a teacher at the school who died March 17 of an apparent heart attack.

Inside the gym, more than 750 people gathered to honor the popular special education teacher and former San Diego State basketball player whose "charm, wit and absolute love for his students was made very apparent by Kim everyday," Smith said.

"He loved his students and was loved by his students," she said. "There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for a student ---- he is going to be missed so much by so many people."

Students in teacher Tracey Greer's Associated Student Body leadership organized the charity basketball game, which far surpassed the projected 300 attendees. Money raised at the event will be donated to the National Kidney Foundation. Goetz had planned to donate a kidney to his brother in June.

"Many of the kids who helped with tonight's game never even had Mr. Goetz as a teacher," said Greer, before the tip-off of the contest that pitted a loosely formed team of students against a ragtag squad of staff members.

"He was just so popular with so many students ---- everybody knew about how nice Mr. Goetz was ---- people are here tonight because they want to honor his memory," Greer said. "He was a very special person."

Karen Clow, a colleague of the 6-foot-7 Goetz whose classroom was next door, said the man she and many others called the "Gentle Giant" had a humorous side and was fond of giving nicknames to staff members.

"One day he passed by me and asked me about a report we write on a student's progress called a BIP," recalled the 5-foot-1 Clow. "From that day, several years ago, he always called me "Bip." He never called me by any other name, including my own, just "Bip."

"He made up nicknames for just about all the staff members, and always called them by those names."

Goetz often touched the lives of students who weren't his own.

Rachel Crosthwaite, a junior at the school who says she has dyslexia, recalled Goetz taking an interest in her progress in school, even though she was never enrolled in his classes.

"At the beginning of my freshman year and right through the end of my sophomore year, Mr. Goetz always checked with me to see how I was doing in all my subjects," said Crosthwaite.

"I wasn't even one of his students, but he cared about me, and how I was doing in school. That's the kind of person he was. He was a very caring teacher, and we're all going to miss him very much."

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