Alvin M. Goodman *58

Alvin Goodman, an electrical engineer who had retired from both RCA and the U.S. Office of Naval Research, died Dec. 24, 2017, of congestive heart failure. He was 87.

Goodman graduated from Drexel University in 1952, and in 1958 he earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Princeton. After being on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University, in 1959 he joined the technical staff of RCA Laboratories in Princeton.

At RCA, he wrote 57 articles for refereed journals, received 24 U.S. patents, and earned several awards. Goodman treasured a sabbatical year he spent in postdoctoral study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

After early retirement in 1987, Goodman had a second career as a scientific program officer in the electronics division of the Office of Naval Research. He retired again in 1996. He enjoyed his retirement, but became blind at age 82. Not giving up, he continued his walks on the arm of a seeing person and listened to hundreds of books, including classics he had not had time to read in his earlier years.

Goodman is survived by his wife of 51 years, Constance, and two children.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.