was often sought for appointments in civic organizations concerned with social welfare because of her professional ability, efficiency, and pleasing personality as well as her personal concern with social problems. At the time of her death, her service in these roles included appointments as member of the board of directors of several organizations concerned with minority groups and other matters of social welfare of the City of Houston and Harris County, Texas, and long tenure as a member of the national board of directors of the American Social Health Association and the American Parents Committee. Her service in civic affairs in one way or another made use of her professional training and capabilities so that she served as both professional consultant and active doer. Other service as a professionally trained consultant which she gave during her lifetime is long and arduous, and includes four years, from 1964 t o 1968, as a columnist for the Houston Post, an office which may be described as that of consultant on social problems for the general reading public.
MARY ELLEN GOODMAN 1911-1969 MARY ELLEN HOHIESEL GOODMAN was born August 8, 1911, and died on August 24, 1969, of cancer. Among anthropologists of the nation and the world and, surely also, among all human beings she was a remarkable person. Her life was a complex and unique combination of multiple roles, some received by birthright and others acquired, roles that she filled with rare success and grace. As a professional anthropologist of female sex, a role with many stresses, strains, and other complexities, she served vigorously in every capacity that the academic world offers or demands-as instructor, researcher, author, student advisor, public lecturer, consultant on anthropological affairs, and in roles giving generous service to professional societies, philanthropic foundations, and the institutions where she held appointments. As a citizen of the United States and the world concerned with the welfare of mankind, she also gave much time and effort to civic affairs on both local and national levels. and 244
This account of Mary Ellen Goodman’s professional and peripherally-professional service is a brief outline. The full history is a remarkable record of industry and altruism. But the important roles of her lifetime do not end with these activities. She was also a wife and mother. Married for 36 years to a physicist, Dr. Clark Goodman, who achieved distinction as a scientist and success as a businessman, she was the mother of two children, Gaye Ellen Goodman and Alan Clark Goodman, both now young adults. In these roles as well as in others, the evidence of her success is abundant and clear. In the memories of those who knew Mary Ellen Goodman still another of her roles remains vivid. Born with striking and unusual physical beauty, she amply discharged her duties t o society as a beautiful woman. Always impeccably, tastefully, and appropriately groomed, she was at the same time always unmistakeably feminine, a woman of rare elegance of attire and grace
OBITUARIES
of manner and movement. These traits of beauty remained with her to the end, through the many months of the final, debilitating stages of her illness, a time when, between periodic hospitalizations, she continued her work and life as normally as possible until a few days before her death. She met death as she had met life, bravely, without personal complaint o r imposition of her troubles upon others, and with consummate grace. I have not forgotten that this notice appears in a professional journal and that it should appropriately give main concern to Mary Ellen Goodman as a professional anthropologist. A native of California, she was born on a homestead in the Mojave Desert. After receiving the degree of Bachelor of Education at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1932, she served as an elementary school teacher in California and married Clark Goodman in 1933. Accompanying her husband to Boston, where he received doctoral training in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she enrolled in anthropology at Radcliffe College in 1938. The years of study at Radcliffe established a pattern of multiple roles and hard work that increased as the years passed. In addition to her roles as wife and student, she served as a photographer’s fashion model to aid in the financial support of herself and her husband. She was granted the doctorate in anthropology in 1946, the second such degree in the history of Radcliffe College. Her professional service in anthropology began with an appointment a t Wellesley College, where she served as instructor and assistant professor from 1946 to 1954. A year of field research (1954-55) in Japan as a Fulbright scholar followed and also appointments as Director, Early Childhood Studies, Tufts University (1956-59), Social Science Analyst, United S t a t e s Public Housing Administration (1957-58), and Coordinator of Studies, 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth (195859). In 1959, her husband’s employment took her and her family to Houston, where she soon began service in
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connection with civic affairs and, in 1961, accepted an appointment as associate professor at the University of Houston. During 1963 to 1965 she held simultaneously her appointment a t the University of Houston and a lectureship a t Rice University. In 1965 she began a full-time professorial appointment at Rice University, where her numerous offices included directorship of the doctoral program in anthropology and sociology from 1967. Mary Ellen Goodman’s research followed consistent and coherent lines that reach back to her interests before she became a professional anthropologist. One of her principal interests was the culture of children, and her early research on children’s awareness of and attitudes toward racial differences remains the only substantial contribution on this subject by an anthropologist. Other research on children includes a comparative study of values, attitudes, and aspirations of Japanese and American children. A summation of her studies of children is contained in a book, The Culture of Childhood, completed during the time that she was ill and scheduled for publication in 1970 (Teachers College, Columbia University). Much of her research had immediate value for application to the solution of social problems and may be described as objective research inspired by an awareness of social problems, research that was ever mindful of the need for accurate factual information as a prerequisite for social reform, Her research also prominently included the study of inter-ethnic problems of housing and education, successful (as well as unsuccessful) families, the transmission of values with special reference to childhood socialization and education, and urban problems of the United States. At the time of her death she had nearly completed extensive research on Negroes and Mexican-Americans in Houston. This research has subsequently been completed by devoted research assistants, and a manuscript reporting its results is now in the final stages of preparation. Before Mrs. Goodman became aware of her illness she had made many plans for
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future research that included a large-scale comparative study of the values, attitudes, and aspirations of children in Asian countries. Before her illness, it seemed clear to her associates that her career as a professional anthropologist would be long and increasingly productive. I t also seemed very clear to us that, although her achievements had already been honored In numerous ways such as listing in Who’s Who in America and similar biographical registers and national awards of merit given by organized groups, the greatest honors lay in the future. These prophecies could not be fulfilled in their conventional sense, but they have already been fulfilled in a way that gives highest honor. Those who knew Mary Ellen Goodman, whose association with her allowed acquaintance unguarded by the necessary defenses of a beautiful, intelligent, warm, and generous woman in a world that is still essentially a man’s world, felt for her great love, respect, and admiration. We are honored to have known her. As a last service to anthropology, Mary Ellen Goodman bequeathed her personal library of scholarly books to Rice University to form the nucleus of a departmental library. Substantially augmented by gifts of money sent by friends and admirers throughout the nation and in foreign countries for the purchase of books in her memory, the collection has been officially designated by the President of Rice University as the Mary Ellen Goodman Memorial Library. EDWARD NORBECK
Rice University BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MARY ELLEN GOODMAN 1944a The forbidden land (an ethnographic survey of Tibet). The Scientific Monthly 58 ~348-356,427-434. 194413 The physical properties of stone t o o l materials. American Antiquity 9:415-433. 1946 Evidence concerning the genesis of interracial attitudes. American Anthropologist 48:624-630.
[73,1971
1950 The education of children and youth t o live in a multi-racial society. The Journal of Negro Education 19:399-407. 1952 Race awareness in young children. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley. 1 9 5 4 T h e anthropological dimension. Adult Leadership 2 :13-16. 1955a Anthropological notes on culture. Nishinomiya: Kobe College Studies, No. 4, March. 1 9 5 5 b (with Kimie Hirooka) Tokiwa, model Japanese kindergarten. Medford, Mass.: Eliot-Pearson School of Tufts University. 1957 Values, attitudes, and social concepts of Japanese and American children. American Anthropologist 59:979-999. 1958a (with Dura Louise Cockrell) Emergent citizenship-a study of four year olds. Eliot-Pearson School of Tufts University (mimeo). 1958c (with Lawrence N. Bloomberg) Mobility and motivations: a survey of families moving from low-rent housing, city report, New Orleans, Louisiana. Washington: Public Housing Administrat ion, January. 1958d The 1960 White House conference on children and youth. Washington: U n i t e d States Government Printing Office. 1959a A primer for parents-educating our children for good human relations. New York: Anti-Defamation League, (reprintings running into 1963). 1959b Emergent citizenship-a study of relevant values in four year olds. Childhood Education 35:248-251. 1959c Needs of the child from the child’s viewpoint. The Journal of the American Public Welfare Association 17:99-102. 1959d The golden anniversary White House conference on children and youths-a topic guide. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. 1960a Children as informants: the child’s eye view of society and culture. The American Catholic Sociological Review 21 ~136-145. 1960b The changing world. In The states report on children and youth. Katharine Pringel, ed. 1960 White House conference on children and youth. Washington: U n i t e d States Government Printing Office. 1960c The making of magicians. The Camp Fire Girl 39:3. 1961a Sanctuaries for tradition: Virginia’s new private schools. Atlanta, Georgia: Southern Regional Council. (Special Report)
OBITUARIES 1961b Texas faces its human problems: the individual in so’ciety. Proceedings of the fifty-first annual conference November 12-15, 1 9 6 1 , Texas Social Welfare Association, Austin, Texas. 1962a Culture and conceptualization: a study of Japanese and American children. Ethnology 1 :374-386. 196213 Where d o o u r understandings of values originate? Proceedings of the thirteenth annual conference of t h e Southern Association o n Children Under Six, Dallas, Texas. 1962c Where d o our understandings of values originate? The Journal of Nursery Education XVII. 1 9 6 3 American values and t h e educated American woman. Proceedings o f a symposium held a t Rice University, January 29-30, 1963, The Role of the Educated Woman, pp. 17-28, Houston, Texas. 1964-68 Weekly column in t h e Houston Post. 1964a Cultural and social pressures o n our children: annual proceedings of conference and institute. New York: Child Study Association of America March 9-10, pp. 21-26. 196413 Good character is m a d e n o t born. Parents’ 39:54-55. 1964c Race awareness in young children (revised and up-dated). New York: Crowell-Collier (paperback). 1964d The V.D. m e n acep r ev en t i o n is better than cure. Parents’ 39:143-145. 1964e Woman as a person-her self fulfillment. Iowa State University: Proceedings of t h e Leadership Conference, a Look at th e Roles of Iowa Women. May 1 9 , pp. 1-12. 1965a Child’s eye views of the world of people. Wheelock Alumnae Quarterly, Winter, pp. 6-10. 19651, Cultural and social pressures o n our children. Annual Proceedings, Child Study Association o f America, pp. 21-27. 1965c (with Douglas Price-Williams) The people of census tract 16. Rice University: Center for Research in Social Change a n d Economic Development (mimeo). 1 9 6 6 Campus youth in an age of anomie. Journal of the National Association of W o m e n Deans and Counselors 29:188-192. 1967a (with Jose d e la Isla 111) Houstonians of Mexican ancestry: report o n a study in
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progress. Project Houston: Report 3, Houstonians of Mexican Ancestry. Rice University: Center for Research in Social Change and Economic Development (mimeo). 196713 The individual and culture. Hornewood, 111.: Dorsey Press. 1968a (with Robert S. Guerra) A content assessment of El Sol, a community newspaper. Project Houston: Report 5, Houstonians of Mexican ancestry. Rice University: Center for Research in Social Change and Economic Development (mimeo). 1 9 6 8 b (with Alma Beman) Child’s eye views of life in an urban barrio. Project Houston: Report 4, Houstonians of Mexican ancestry, Rice University: Center for Research in Social Change a nd Economic Development (mimeo). 1 9 6 8 c Houstonians of Mexican ancestry: Report on a study in progress. In Contemporary Latin America. Harvey L. Johnson and Richard V. Weekes, eds. University of Houston: Office of International Affairs, pp. 39-43. 1968d Influence of childhood and adolescence. In The study of personality. Edward Norbeck, W. McCord, and Douglass Price-Williams, eds. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1 9 6 8 e Spanish speaking people in the United States. Proceedings of the 1968 annual spring meeting of t h e American Ethnological Society. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 84-103. 1968f (with Don des Jarlais) The Spanish surname population of Houston: a demographic sketch. Project Houston: Report 2, Houstonians of Mexican ancestry. Rice University: Center for Research in Social Change and Economic Development (mimeo). 1968g Through the eyes of young children. Parents’ 43~35-37. 1969a Social planning versus or for the individual. In Planning with the individual. American Institute of Planners, pp. 11-20. 1 9 6 9 b The impact of change. Childhood Education. November, pp. 67-72. 1 9 7 0 The culture of childhood. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. (in press) (with Alma Beman) Tracktown children. In The Negro family: a book of readings. Charles V. Willie, ed. New York: Charles E. Merrill Book Company.
