Donald Goodrich

Longtime Jefferson resident Donald Cole Goodrich died on March 2 at the Greene County Medical Center. He was 92.

A memorial service will be held on May 7 at the Slininger-Schroeder Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Jefferson Public Library, a place that Don loved and used throughout his life.

Don was born in Jefferson on Nov. 10, 1928, the youngest of three sons of Orin and Mary Goodrich.

His father owned the Square Deal Grocery on the north side of the Courthouse Square. During World War II, Don was his father’s delivery boy, driving orders to local households even though he wasn’t old enough to have a driver’s license. Permission to help out his dad had been given by Jefferson’s legendary police chief, Mick Parr.

In 1946, Don graduated from Jefferson High School, where he was a member of the football team and made many lifelong friends.

After high school,  Don joined his father in the grocery business. In 1950, Don and Betty Williams, a 1947 JHS graduate, were married at the Jefferson Methodist Church, where they became longtime active members.

Don and Betty were the parents of five children: three daughters and two sons.

In 1959, the Goodriches bought a grocery in Harlan. Don and his family returned to Jefferson in 1966 and he later became a painting contractor, painting “half the houses and businesses in Jefferson, inside and out,” said an old friend.

An energetic man, Don loved to swim laps at Jefferson’s municipal pool. His father, as mayor of Jefferson, oversaw the construction by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) of the pool in 1937, and, once again, Chief Mick Parr overlooked unlicensed activity —  after-hours dips on hot summer nights, when Don was a young man. 

Don was a committed — and swift — walker at the Greene County Community Center, doing laps on the track until shortly before his death. He never shied from making long road trips, and drove to visit his daughters and their families in Colorado well into his 80s.

Don Goodrich was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers, Ellis and Orin Jr., known as “Goodie.” Both were decorated members of air crews in World War II; Ellis as a navigator, and Goodie as a pilot, and were greatly admired by their youngest brother.

Don’s wife, Betty, died in 2014. They were a devoted couple, married for 64 years, who loved to travel and made many trips to overseas destinations, including the British Isles, Mexico and Tahiti. They also traveled extensively in the USA.

Survivors include his children: Rod Goodrich and his wife, Cathy, of Jefferson; Mary Jo Cole, of Aurora, Colo.; Beth Ann Goodrich, of Nashville, Tenn.; Sarah Bradley and her husband, Michael, of Aurora; and Bruce Goodrich, of Houston; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.