HAMPTON — Richard Hyman “Dick” Goodman, 84, of Hampton and Rangeley, Maine passed away on Wednesday, August 19, 2015, following a lengthy illness.

Dick Goodman was a national leader in public education. He was born in Hanover on January 9, 1931, the twelfth of 13 children of the late Anna and Bennie Goodman. Dick graduated in 1949 from Lebanon High School, where he was Class President, played football and sang in the choir. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1953, where he also played varsity football and was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. In August of that year, he married Arlene Jette of West Lebanon.

Mr. Goodman received his Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Wesleyan University in 1955. He subsequently served for two years as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army in Valley Forge, Pa. His first position in public education was as a teacher and principal in the Meriden (NH) Elementary School. He then earned his Doctorate of Education from Harvard University, graduating in 1961. He served as Superintendent of Schools in the Milford (NH) Union 40 District (including Amherst, Brookline, Hollis, Milford and Mount Vernon) from 1961 to 1965. He was selected by the American Association of School Administrators to study public schools in Sweden in 1963. The Jaycees named him an Outstanding Young Man of New England in 1966.

He held the position of Executive Director of the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) from 1966 until 1969, when he became Superintendent of Schools in Wellesley, MA. In 1976, Dick and his family moved from Wayland, MA to Hampton and he became Executive Director of both the NH School Boards Association and the NH School Administrators Association. As Director of the Center for Educational Field Studies (CEFS) at the University of New Hampshire, he visited every one of the 221 towns in the state, assisting local school boards and administrators in a multitude of ways. He fought tirelessly for the betterment of New Hampshire public schools and for the success of every child in the state.

Dick was widowed in 1989. He retired in 1996 but continued to consult, serving as a Project Director at NESDEC. He co-authored “Improved Leadership for Improved Achievement” and “Thinking Differently: Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement.” The latter publication was sent to all school superintendents in America. He directed a national study of public school district governance, resulting in the co-authored publication “Getting There from Here: School Board-Superintendent Collaboration for Raising Student Achievement.” Dick founded the New Hampshire School Boards Insurance Trust and the New England Christa McAuliffe Conference on Technology for Education. He conducted hundreds of workshops for school leaders and spoke at many regional and national conferences, including those of the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association.

In 1998, Dick became a Delegation Leader for People to People, and was appointed Area Director for Northern New England the following year. In 2000, Dick remarried. He and his wife Lynn Cozza Goodman were both Delegation Leaders and led many groups of student ambassadors to over 10 countries until their retirement from the program in 2005. In 2006 Dick ran for and was elected to the Winnacunnet High School Board of Education, where he served two 3-year terms. He enjoyed fishing in the lakes and rivers of New England, earning the nickname “Fishnet.” He was an avid walker, devoured books on historical figures, and loved to wear colorful Save the Children ties. A favorite pastime was watching The Lawrence Welk Show, which he rarely missed. He spent many summer vacations at the family camp in Rangeley, Maine.

Dick delighted in his family. He was proud that his parents, who emigrated from Russia at the turn of the 20th century, sent all 13 of their children to college. While a student at Wesleyan, he successfully nominated his mother to be New Hampshire’s 1954 Mother of the Year – an honor that gave him tremendous joy. Always the life of the party, he hosted an annual Fourth of July family reunion in Hampton for 35 years. He devoted the first years of his retirement to researching and privately publishing a book about the Goodman Family.

He leaves behind his wife of 15 years, Lynn Cozza Goodman and stepsons Derek DiMatteo of Bloomington, IN and David DiMatteo and his partner Julia Meier of Portland, OR; his daughters, Jane Goodman of Bloomington, IN, Susan Cohen and her husband William of Stirling, NJ; his son David Goodman and his wife Ellen of Hampton; four beloved grandchildren, Matthew Cohen of New York, NY, Lianna Cohen of Boston, MA, and Isabelle and Samuel Goodman, both of Hampton; brother Joseph Goodman and his wife Pat of Nashua; his sisters, Lillian Goodman and her close friend Mary K Alexander of Shrewsbury, MA, Elizabeth Fleischman of Boynton Beach, FL; 30 nieces and nephews and their families and many friends.

In addition to his parents, Dick was predeceased by his brothers, Samuel, George, Robert, Harry, Harvey and Louis Goodman; his sisters, Grace Smith, Mary Pearlstein and Helen Budd.

SERVICES: Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 22, 2015, in the Remick & Gendron Funeral Home – Crematory, 811 Lafayette Rd., Hampton. Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday, August 23 at the First Congregational Church of Hampton, 127 Winnacunnet Rd, Hampton. Burial will follow in the High Street Cemetery, Hampton. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Richard H. Goodman Memorial Scholarship Fund. Checks can be made payable to:Winnacunnet Dollars for Scholars (enter Richard H. Goodman Memorial Scholarship Fund in the memo field) and mailed to:Winnacunnet Dollars for Scholars, Inc., PO Box 1593, North Hampton, NH 03862