VENTURA : 60-Year Resident Named Top Citizen

Longtime Ventura resident Glenn Gooss, who helped start Candy Cane Lane on Teloma Drive, has been named the city’s 1992 Citizen of the Year by the Ventura Jaycees.

Gooss, 69, moved to Ventura when he was 9. He is a 35-year member of the Downtown Ventura Lions Club, and according to club officers has never missed a meeting.

He was named Citizen of the Year on Saturday at the annual installation dinner of the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce.

Also at the event, Guy Wysinger, manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California in Ventura, was installed as president of the chamber.

A graduate of Ventura High School, Gooss attended Ventura College before he was drafted into the Army during World War II.

He participated in the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach as a member of the 29th Infantry Division. After leaving the Army, he returned to Ventura to marry his high school sweetheart, Phyllis, and the couple raised two children here.

Gooss worked for the U. S. Postal Service and several car dealers before becoming the manager of a local finance company. He held that position for 28 years before retiring in 1987.

He now serves on the board of directors of the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame and sits on a fund-raising committee for a new Ventura High School swimming pool.

He is also treasurer of Consumer Credit Counselors, a nonprofit organization that helps people resolve financial difficulties through counseling and repayment programs. He helped organize that agency in 1966.