Samuel P. Goddard Papers
Biography
From St. Louis to Tucson
Samuel Pearson Goddard, Jr. was born August 8, 1919 in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. His mother, a graduate of the New England Conservatory, instilled in Goddard a love of music and the arts. His father, Samuel Pearson Goddard Sr. worked as a wholesale grocer and ran the family business Goddard Grocery Company. Like his father, who was a graduate of the class of 1900, Sam Goddard attended Harvard University. While at the university, he majored in history, specializing in the classical period; and became involved in drama and crew. Goddard sang in the Harvard Glee Club and headed a musical comedy group called the Troubadours and took on many roles, including playing the bishop's sister in one play called, "The Bishop Misbehaves." He was also the lead in a Classics Club production of Aristophenes' "The Birds". The original musical score and direction was by fellow Harvard student Leonard Bernstein. Goddard rowed for two seasons on the university's Varsity Crew. In 1941, he received his A.B. degree from Harvard. One month after graduation, Goddard enlisted in the United States Army Air Force.
As an officer in the Army Air Force, Sam Goddard joined a family tradition. His paternal great-grandfather, John Goddard, served as wagon-master general of the Massachusetts Militia and was credited with helping fortify Dorchester Heights to force the British out of Boston. Sam Goddard trained in electronics at Scott Field in the Army's division of Radio Communications. The skills he learned would later translate into a two-way radio business after the war. While at Newcastle Army Air Base near Wilmington, Delaware, Goddard made his first connection with Arizona - he met Barry Goldwater. As governor and chair of Arizona's Democratic Committee, Goddard would later become a colleague of the Arizona Senator and presidential candidate.
As an operations and communications officer, Goddard participated in all theatres of operation during World War II, serving in England, India, North Africa, and the South Pacific. After his discharge from active duty in 1946, Goddard joined the United States Air Force Reserves and later rose to the rank of full colonel. Sam Goddard married Julia Enos Hatch of Springfield, Illinois in 1944. Judy Goddard moved to Arizona the following year after a doctor suggested it would improve her rheumatoid arthritis. After discharge from active duty, Goddard joined his wife in December, 1945, traveling from his last duty post on Guam, he arrived in Tucson, wearing his heaviest wool uniform and, in spite of Judy's constant comments on how hot Arizona was, found the freezing cold weather very surprising. He did not stop shivering until thirty minutes in a hot bathtub.
