The Rita and Arnold Goodman Fellowship was established in 2001 by David, Norman, and Andrew Goodman in order to honor their parents and to continue their life’s work of mentoring youth and promoting international understanding.
Arnold Goodman
While running a successful property management and insurance business, Arnold found time to be engaged in many good causes, from the local to the global. He was active in the economic redevelopment of Racine, Wisconsin, where he and Rita and their sons were born and grew up. He was a passionate supporter of the United Nations and advocate of world government. He was honored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews for his community relations work. And after his untimely death in 1980 at age 60, he was honored posthumously by the United Nations Association of the United States (UNA-USA), which established an award in his name to encourage others to emulate his years of dedicated service.
Rita Goodman
From 1973 until her retirement in 1989, Rita Goodman was vice-president of the Johnson Foundation in Racine, where she was responsible for planning conferences and exchanges on a wide variety of issues, including U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-China relations, nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, and women’s rights. Throughout her career, she was particularly dedicated to mentoring young women, preparing them to assume leadership roles in academia, business, and nongovernmental organizations.
Rita Goodman died on February 28, 2000.
Why Women in International Development (now Women & Gender in Global Perspectives)?
Among the conferences, Rita Goodman planned was an organizational meeting in the mid-1970s for a new program at the University of Illinois called “Women in International Development.” Today, renamed Women & Gender in Global Perspectives (WGGP), this program continues to support faculty and graduate students working in the area of women and development.
