Dr. Richard Goode’s life is the ultimate “pay it forward” story.
Born in Fort Worth, Goode, BA ’37, was the only member of his immediate family to graduate from college — doing so during the Great Depression. After earning his bachelor’s from Baylor in economics, he went on to become a professor at the University of Chicago in one of the top economic programs in the world.
He later joined the International Monetary Fund during its formative years and became the first director of the Fiscal Affairs Department, then worked as a consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department, the United Nations and the Brookings Institution and as a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.
But Goode never forgot where he came from. Motivated by gratefulness for the scholarship support he received as a student and the role Baylor professors played in preparing him for his career, Goode and his wife, Liesel, established an endowed scholarship fund at Baylor in 1999. Goode passed away in 2010, but even in death the couple will continue to help BU students; a gift in excess of $7 million from their estate will primarily benefit student scholarships.
“Education empowered him to fulfill a career bigger than his rural Texas upbringing would have indicated,” says Susan Wommack, JD ’89, gift planning legal counsel at Baylor. “He wanted to provide others with that opportunity. He would often get emotional talking about his scholarship students. He knew what he wanted his final legacy to be, and his support of students and The President’s Scholarship Initiative is so meaningful.”
Sic ’em, Dr. Goode, for your legacy of scholarship and service!
In 1958, James Sai-Wing Wong boarded an ocean liner in Hong Kong and began an 18-day trek to Waco, where he and a friend would study at Baylor. More than half a century later, Wong, BS ’60, is now an international business executive and scholar.
About a decade ago, Jenny Chisholm Simmons (pictured on left), BA ’03, and Elizabeth A. Davis (on right), BFA ’03, were roommates at Baylor. Davis was even a bridesmaid in Simmons’ wedding.
In October, Baylor grads Matthew (BA ’05, JD ’09) and Kara (BA ’05, MSED ’10) Sikes welcomed a little boy, James. He was healthy, everything went smoothly and all was well. Then in June, the almost-eight-month-old James started having some health problems. Within a month, an aggressive brain tumor had taken his life.
Summer for a college student usually means one of a few things: work, summer school, perhaps a mission trip and/or family vacation, and finally preparing to go back to school (book-buying and all the rest).
