GODDARD

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, August 06, 2006 at 05:02:40 :

San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, September 5, 2002

George Goddard
Chronicle Staff Report

A private memorial service will be held Sept. 12 for George Goddard, a prominent architect and planning specialist who died last month of injuries from a car crash in Denver. He was 79.

Mr. Goddard was born in Chicago in 1923 and was a graduate of Yale University. Following his graduation, he received a commission in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the communications ship Panamint during World War II.

After the war, he and his wife, Sheret, moved to Massachusetts, where he studied at the Harvard School of Design and was influenced by the works of Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe.

Mr. Goddard completed his studies and moved with his wife to Belvedere, where he worked as an architect for Skidmore, Owens and Merrill. He later went on to practice architecture on his own and also worked as a planning consultant with Leslie Gorsline Associates. He worked primarily in the design of teaching hospitals, and medical and dental schools.

In the 1950s, Mr. Goddard served as chairman of the Belvedere Planning Committee, playing an integral part in the effort to acquire the Richardson Bay tidelands. He also served as supervising architect during the move of the Lyford House by barge from Strawberry Point to its current location at the Richardson Bay Audubon Sanctuary.

Besides his wife, Mr. Goddard is survived by six children, Christopher of Novato, Constance of Mendocino, Peter of Graton, Jeffery of Santa Barbara, Thomas of Santa Cruz and Calvin of San Rafael; six stepchildren; two grandsons; and several nieces and nephews.

Donations may be made to the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary, 376 Greenwood Beach Road, Tiburon, CA 94920 or to the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, 520 Mesa Road, Point Reyes, CA 94956.