Robert W. Goddard ’54 died on November 18, 2019, in Hampton, New Hampshire.
(The following was published by Remick & Gendron Funeral Home on November 19, 2019:)
Robert W. Goddard of Hampton, New Hampshire, retired director of publications for the Liberty Mutual Group, died on Monday, November 18, 2019 at his home. He was 88.
Born in Cambridge, Mr. Goddard graduated from Phillips Academy in 1950, Bowdoin College in 1954 and Boston University in 1959 with an MS in journalism. In 1950, he was a member of Andover’s undefeated and untied track team and won a gold medal in the mile relay at the New England Interscholastic.
Mr. Goddard served with an Aleut scout platoon, U.S. Army ski troops, 71st Arctic Division, in Alaska and joined Liberty Mutual in 1960 as editor of its company magazine and policyholder newsletter. A former registered Maine guide and noted human resources authority, he authored 116 articles for such national publications as Outdoor Life, Motor Trend, Salt Water Sportsman, Personnel Journal, Association Management, Hunting Dog Magazine and Management Review. One of his articles on workplace illiteracy generated an AP Wire Service story that circulated to more than 12 million people and won a New England Bell Ringer Award from the Publicity Club of Boston. Other awards included a “Maggie” from the Western Publications Association and a “Gold Quill” from the International Association of Business Communicators. He is also the author of Effective Management, a 24-lesson training program for new managers and supervisors.
Outdoors, his escapades were diverse. He twice canoed the entire length of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway; helped film a TV special on golden trout in the High Sierras with Gadabout Gaddis, host of The Flying Fisherman; caught and released 120 pounds of king salmon in five hours of fishing on the Kenai Peninsula; won an Oklahoma trap shoot with General Joe Foss, former AFL commissioner and South Dakota governor; downed a barren ground caribou that once ranked #31 on the world records; led an Army recon team that guided a ski-troop battalion across 95 miles of Alaskan wilderness during Operation Moosehorn, a winter maneuver; and got lost one evening in the Berkshire Mountains and climbed up and down hills all night before exiting in the next county.
Mr. Goddard’s community service was equally varied. He served as a hunter-safety instructor, Danvers Fish & Game Club; director/vice president of Middleton Community Services, Inc.; member of the Middleton Planning Board; town representative, Metropolitan Area Planning Council; publicity chairman of the Marblehead United Fund; director of the Goddard Association of America, Inc.; production advisor, student newspaper and yearbook staffs, Charlestown High School/Liberty Mutual Partnership Program; elder affairs representative, Newburyport 2005 Commission; Bowdoin College fundraiser; volunteer warden, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge; and director, Hampton Rod & Gun Club.
In retirement, he resumed a childhood hobby of building models. More than a dozen of his best are on display at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Manchester and three dozen others at Concord’s McAuliffe/Shepard Discovery Center.
Mr. Goddard’s wife, Priscilla, and son, Matthew, predeceased him.
Surviving family members include his two daughters, Michelle Black and her husband Daniel of Rockport, MA and Nicole Glass and her husband Kevin of Essex, MA and four grandchildren, Megan, Courtney, Benjamin and Andrew.