David John Goeser, a fourth-year English student whose disappearance in July caused the UCLA community to band together in a search effort, was found dead on Sept. 22.
Goeser had struggled with depression for several months before his disappearance and died from self-inflicted wounds.
Goeser’s family and friends described him as someone with a big smile and an even bigger heart.
“(Goeser) was really warm and approachable,” said Monica Lancaster, a fourth-year sociology student and president of the Film and Photography Society at UCLA, of which Goeser was a member. “He always made you laugh and had something fun or interesting to say.”
Goeser’s playful personality attracted many friends, said Christi Goeser, David Goeser’s mother. Often, he would break out into song and dance in the middle of the street, or randomly start a game of tag, she added.
His friend Samia Zaidi, a UCLA alumna, said she often found Goeser reading in the grass and that they would frequently play music together late into the night.
The sound of Goeser’s electric guitar or banjo would reverberate throughout his parents’ home in Ventura ““ sometimes for hours, Christi Goeser said. When he was not playing an instrument he would put pen to paper and write his own song lyrics, she said.
A performer and a storyteller, David Goeser always strived to stay true to himself, his friends and family said.
“David was never concerned about impressing people,” Christi Goeser said. “But his goofiness always pulled people in.”
David Goeser planned to go into film and eventually direct films, Christi Goeser said. He was fond of directors like Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin because of their technique in storytelling, she said.
An avid writer, David Goeser would regularly fill up journals with his short stories and scripts, his mother said.
In 2010, Goeser wrote and co-directed a short film called “The Firing Debacle,” a finalist in that year’s Campus MovieFest, an international film festival for college students, Lancaster said.
Goeser also had a passion for music that he shared with the community.
Goeser would sometimes visit local high schools in the Los Angeles area to give free music lessons to high school students, said Zaidi, who is also a former Daily Bruin photographer.
Christi Goeser said she will miss the chatter of her son ““ the music sessions and late-night games of Risk filling the house with life and activity. She said she will miss reading beside him and cooking pancakes for him as a late-night snack.
Above all, she said she will miss her son.
“”˜David’ means “˜beloved’ (in Hebrew) and that is the most apt description I can make of him,” Christi Goeser said.
David Goeser is survived by his parents Christi and Mark and his sister Jessica.
Goeser’s parents and friends plan to host a memorial service in his honor at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village at 2 p.m on Saturday.