RICHARD H. GOODMAN MAT’55
RICHARD H. GOODMAN MAT’55, a national leader in public education, died Aug. 19, 2015, at age 84. An alumnus of Dartmouth College, he received his MAT from Wesleyan and then served in the U.S. Army. His first position in public education was as a teacher and principal in the Meriden, N.H., elementary school. He then earned his doctorate in education from Harvard University and served as superintendent of schools in the Milford, N.H., Union 40 District. In 1963 he was selected by the American Association of School Administrators to study public schools in Sweden, and in 1966 the Jaycees named him an Outstanding Young Man of New England. From 1966 to 1969 he was executive director of the New England School Development Council and then became superintendent of schools in Wellesley, Mass. In 1976 he and his family moved back to New Hampshire, where he became executive director of both the New Hampshire School Boards Association and the New Hampshire School Administrators Association. As director of the Center for Educational Field Studies at the University of New Hampshire, he visited every one of the 221 towns in the state, assisting local school boards and administrators in a multitude of ways. He fought tirelessly for the betterment of New Hampshire public schools and for the success of every child in the state. In 1996 he retired but continued to consult, serving as a project director at NESDEC. He co-authored “Improved Leadership for Improved Achievement” and “Thinking Differently: Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement.” The latter publication was sent to all school superintendents in America. He directed a national study of public school district governance, resulting in the co-authored publication “Getting There from Here: School Board-Superintendent Collaboration for Raising Student Achievement.” A founder of the New Hampshire School Boards Insurance Trust and the New England Christa McAuliffe Conference on Technology for Education, he conducted hundreds of workshops for school leaders and spoke at many regional and national conferences, including those of the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association.
In 1998, he became a delegation leader for People to People, and was appointed area director for Northern New England the following year, leading many groups of student ambassadors to over 10 countries until his retirement from the program in 2005. In 2006 he ran for and was elected to the Winnacunnet High School Board of Education, where he served two 3-year terms. He enjoyed fishing in the lakes and rivers of New England, earning the nickname “Fishnet.” He was an avid walker, devoured books on historical figures and loved to wear colorful Save the Children ties.
While a student at Wesleyan, he successfully nominated his mother to be New Hampshire’s 1954 Mother of the Year, an honor that gave him tremendous joy as the 12th of her 13 children. He devoted the first years of his retirement to researching and privately publishing a book about the Goodman Family. Predeceased by his first wife, Arlene Jette Goodman, he is survived by his wife of 15 years, Lynn Cozza Goodman, three children, two stepsons, including Derek F. DiMatteo ’97, four grandchildren, his brother, two sisters, 30 nieces and nephews, and many friends.