Eric Eby

I was born and raised in Goshen and went to high school here. Then I left for college and was away for about six years total with college and a couple of other jobs I took. My wife and I moved back here in 2015. I made the decision to come back and work for the dealership, and it’s been great ever since.

Eby Ford Lincoln has been in Goshen around 50 to 60 years. We started back in 1922 in Wakarusa, so we are coming up on 100 years in business. One of the things about my position as general sales manager is I get to meet so many people in the community, and since we’ve always been around this area, I meet a lot of people who have been working with us for decades, years. I love to hear the different stories about people and what vehicles they’ve owned, how they bought a vehicle from my great-grandfather or my great-uncle. I think that’s pretty neat.

A couple of years ago, my wife got me my first set of starter golf clubs. I had never swung a club in my life, I was terrible at baseball, but I said I wanted to start golfing. That’s turned into my main hobby. Beyond that, I started doing Crossfit about a year or year and a half ago. Also, my wife and I had our first child in December, and it’s been really fun getting to learn how to be a dad and doing stuff as a family. He’s 4 months old now, and he’s getting to the stage where you can tell he’s learning new things. New interactions and new experiences for him are fun and exciting. That’s been just an absolute joy.

My wife and I love to go to Goshen Brewing Company. That’s a great example of the entrepreneurship in Goshen, and of someone taking an idea and really running with it. And the community’s absolutely embracing it.

When I came back to Goshen after being away, there was a very big difference in the community. You could tell there was a strong culture, but it also has an identity. What I think is really neat is all the new businesses, and especially the restaurants that are popping up. First Fridays obviously has taken off, and that’s been a great thing. What I really enjoy is that we’re kind of a big little community. We’re small enough that we can know the names and faces of people we see at First Fridays. We can know the backstories behind them. We can know the people who own the businesses and know their backstories.