Brooks Goddard

[Brooks Goddard, Wilbury Crockett, Jeanie Goddard, and fellow WHS English teacher Ronnie Bretholtz]

Brooks Goddard earned his BA in 1963 from Williams College, a diploma in Education from Makarere University in 1965, and an MA in Languages and Literature from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1969. He taught English at Deerfield Academy, English as an education officer in Kenya for Teachers for East Africa/TEA, English and life at Upward Bound, English at Wellesley High School for 30 years (20 years as Department Chair), and for the past 12 years adult education at Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning, Regis College Lifetime Learning, and Needham Community Education. His favorite courses to teach were sophomores, America with colleague John McDermott, and The Nature of Man/English 41. Throw in an acting English Department Headship at Needham HS for a year and a term at Westwood High School. Brooks was WHS tennis coach for 14 years and The Boston Globe Boys Tennis Coach of the Year in 1984.

     He loved the classroom, and he loved his students, many of whom he still is in contact with. He is editor of the niche but very readable book, We Were Walimu Once and Young, Snapshots of Teaching in East Africa by Jugum Press. An inveterate world traveller and reader of such, his Swahili motto is “dunia ni maarifa” [the world is knowledge]. His 53 year love affair with wife Jeanie is the glory of his life.