Table Of ContentGOODMAN
GEORGE
JONES
(1904^1999)
MEMOIR
A
A.Lawson
Cheryl
Oklahoma most
The University of Oklahoma and the State of lost their distinguished
and renowned plant taxonomist on May 23, 1999, with the death of Dr. George
J.
Goodman, Regents Professor Emeritus and Curator Emeritus of the Bebb Herbarium.
Goodman was born November Evanston, Wyoming, to Arthur and
904,
in
Dr. 5,
1
come
Goodman. young mother had 886 country
Elizabeth Jones As a girl his in to this
1
Goodman him was
from Wales, and would proudly point out that half of a first-gen-
Dr.
home-
eration American. A ranch, located some twenty-five miles south of Evanston and
Goodman
Goodman where spent the
steaded by Grandfather 883, Dr. first five
his in is
1
outdoors and the West thus began.
years of his His love of the
life.
who
Goodman, had no
After graduating from Evanston High School in 1922, Dr.
plans to attend college, worked as a ranch hand,as a clerk in a drug store,as a sacker in a
salesman pianos and phonographs and of contract printing, and as
grain elevator,as a of
compass man the Forest Service the Kaibab of Arizona. About 1925 and
for U.S. in
a
bought
Ogden, Dr.Goodman's
during the time he was delivering groceries Utah, father
in
another ranch which was located due south of Evanston a mile over the Utah line. Dr.
occurred that would begin his botanical career which lasted nearly three-quarters of a
who
Wyoming done
had
Edwin Payson,a botany professor from the University of
Dr.
graduate work on the Cruciferae at the Missouri Botanical Garden under Dr.Jesse M.
his
someone them up
Greenman,and his wife Lois came to Evanston to find to take into the
Goodman,
George
Mountains was there that they learned of
Uintah to collect plants.
It
made
who by that time had already climbed several peaks in the Uintah Mountains.They
Goodman
week
Goodman camped
their way to the Ranch and there for a or two. Dr.
them up and Hayden's Peak where Sereno Watson had collected
took to Stillwater Fork
young man who became guide, the Paysons suggested to
Impressed by the their
Goodman that he should go to college and offered to give him a room for the year
Dr.
and to try to find him a job on the Laramie campus. After a discussion with his parents,
Good man agreed go.While camped
a year of college couldn't hurt, Dr. to still
and
Goodman Ranch, the Paysons wrote to Aven Nelson, botany professor
Dr.
?
and him they had someone they thought would make a good
irium curator, told
He
was. didn't ask, but learn he did!
i
Bow
The Medicine Mountains, located
just
ite collecting site during the three years and a
his bachelor of arts degree with honors in botany. was to these mountains that he
It
would return many, many summers throughout hi Vhether h< was there to teach
ifi
Goodman
1929
Dr. received Rufus Lackland Fellowship from Washington
In a
J.
University in St. Louis to do graduate work at the Missouri Botanical Garden under
Dr.
M.Greenman. new roommate
Jesse His and soon-to-be closest friend was Hitchcock
C.
L.
who
would become
(Hitchy) professor of botany and curator of the herbarium the
at
University of Washington, Seattle,and a major contributor to the Flora of the Pacific North-
Goodman
west. Lured by Eriogonum and Lycium, and Hitchcock headed out to collect
in
summer
the West the of 1930.
in
This trip which began June followed Route he ihrouaL southern
in Missouri, Okla-
homa, and the Texas panhandle.This was the time Goodman had been
Okla-
first Dr.
in
homa, and while no plants were collected they reached New on
until Portales, Mexico,
M
muni
Oklahom
ring
iu '" h« rod in icuriou licotyh >nous plant with flow-
i
I
ers that looked an orchid coming
like Ian h latei tftei to the University of Okla-
I > i
homa, he learned that he was looking Krameria.
at
The Goodman/H
were and
collected later divided into sets which were then sold mostly to large herbaria
throughout the country in order to fin, hh e the trip. Sites such as the Chiricahua Moun-
tains of Arizona and the Abajo Mountains of Utah had been From
infreguently collected.
now
thru ejections few
a taxa lesullrd.
i
throughout Goodman
continued George
their lives litchy to lease about events
I
nm
which
transpired duiii 'r, null A'erde Dr.Goodman expounded
J
1.
i i t f
lengthily to two gentlemen on wheie to tuiv the heapest gas MonumentValley.One
in
c
men
of the proved to be the vice-presideni of Bethlehem Steel! itchy never did agree
I
with Dr.Goodman on whethei the\ had sent mountain the Kaibab
a lion o< a .o J| in forests
northern Arizen
in tin Int il there were wild.
1 h it s
i [ i I i I (
nim
The two m
repairs d iouo :> Or
in
nl tin nl their
i i i v i -
on
panel truck, lived strawberry jam, and had a lifetime's worth of fun. Even as late as
Goodman me
992 recounted
Dr. clearly for the events of that
1 trip.
Goodman
completed
Dr. his doctoral degree Wasningion University and the
at
Missouri Botanical Garden n 933 and came once again to Oklahoma, but this time as
i
an assistant professor of botany and curator of the herbarium the
at University of Okla-
homa, Norman. However, job 936 from Iowa Goodman
a offer in State College took
Dr.
1
Goodman
summers
During three of the in Iowa Dr. ha<
He and Hitchy had seen these mountains the distance as they drove north to-
in
a.
d Mexican Hat, Utah. Very few botanists had by that time collected in the Lukachukai
Among who accompanied him was Payson,who had been
those Lois instru-
s.
who widowed
Goodman's and had been the
mental beginning botanical career in
Dr.
in
spring of 1927. The group camped near Canyon de Chelly and collected on the Navajo
developed with the wonderful Navajo.On one occasion
Reservation. Lasting friendships
they were an Indian ceremony, which lasted the entire night.This asso-
at least invited to
Goodman.
made upon
ciation with the Navajo people a lasting impression Dr.
who
Fortunately for those of us came later as students to the University of Okla-
Goodman George former
homa, accepted 945 the offer from Dr. Cross, a col-
Dr. in L.
1
OU
and the Botany Department and by then president of the
league close friend
in
OU
University of Oklahoma, to return to and the Bebb Herbarium. During his tenure as
Goodman from few thousand plant specimens into one
curator,Dr. builtthe collection a
that before his retirement in 975 would amass nearly a quarter-million specimens.To-
1
Oklahoma,
day the Bebb Herbarium houses the world's finest collection of the flora of
southwestern United
along with strong holdings of the flora from surrounding states,the
the Great and Mexico.
States, Plains,
The Oklahoma recognized Dr.Goodman's exceptional contribution to
University of
the University and to the Bebb Herbarium by appointing him Regents Professor in 967.
1
honorjn
He was awarded the Distinguish Service Citation,the University's highest 978.
also
1
Goodman and an exhaustive
possessed not only intellectual curiosity
Dr. a lively
make
warmth and would the herbarium
knowledge of plants, but also a cordiality that a
and
where colleagues and students gathered over the years for meetings, parties,
place
and
informal coffee conversation.
Dr.Goodman came be known leading expert
During his career as a botanist to as a
the of plant taxonomy for Oklahoma and the western United States. He authored
field
in
new made new com-
eleven
seventy-three publications, described thirty-six plant taxa,
named
and had him.
binations, four plants for
member
Dr.Goodman was charter of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists,
a
the International Association of PlantTaxonomists,the Society for the Study of Evolution,
Academy
Colorado-Wyoming
the Southwestern Association of Naturalists, and the of
Kappa Sigma,Sigma
Science.lnaddition,hewasamemberofPhi Beta Kappa,Phi Phi.Phi
Award
Xi,and the Oklahoma Academy of Science. He received the Phi Sigma Ortenburger
and the Oklahoma Academy of Science Award of Merit addition to the Distinguished
in
Oklahoma.
from the University of
Service Citation
We
was Dr.Goodman's graduate student. continued to work side by side both
last
I
the and the herbarium for nearly a quarter century after his so-called "retire-
in field in
ment." During the field work for our book, Retracing Major Stephen H. Long's 1820 Expedi-
we through
The Itinerary and Botany (OU Press, 1995), traveled over 10,000 miles
tion:
Colorado,New
Nebraska, Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Our ihcWesi
follow
field trips
in
Working Dr.Goodman
as did with was an incredible experience with memo-
indelible
filled
I
Goodman
was
Dr. as enthusiastic about as he was about Once when
life plants.
how
asked he would Dr.Goodman
describe been was
his replied/It's
life, a blast!" too,
It,
a"blast"for those of us lucky enough have had him
to part of our
in a lives!
In August, 1 999, Dr.Goodman's ashes were taken by Marcia, his wife of fifty years, his
daughter Sula Grace Henrichsen,and other relatives and friends to the vicinity of West
Glacier Lake near Centennial, Wyoming, the Medicine Bow Mountains.The
in circle closed,
and he was back
for perpetuity the mountains he
in loved.
