After Nix decided to run for Middletown City Council in 2001, she sought the political advice of Goodman, who was 83 at the time and a veteran of countless elections. They met numerous times that year at his kitchen table as he laid out his political advice, and it worked. Nix, now Butler County treasurer and active in the Republican party, won a seat on council in November 2001.
“That one year has stayed with me,” she said.
Even now, 15 years later, she remembers what Goodman taught her: Get out and place as many political yard signs as possible because each sign represents two votes.
“He was all about being local,” she said.
Besides his public relations firm, Goodman served as corporate director of public relations and advertising for Aeronca Inc., and editor of The Middletown Journal.
He served as the youngest president of the Middletown Jaycees and later as youngest vice president of Ohio Jaycees; member and first president of the executive committee of the Middletown Area United Way; member and vice-president of the Middletown Area Chamber of Commerce; and chairman of Middletown Statehouse Conference on Education and chairman of the cities Ohio Project/School Finance.
Ann Mort met Goodman in the early 1980s when she was running for the Middletown school board. Their friendship lasted for more than 30 years, and it grew as Mort remained active in the community and eventually won a seat on Middletown City Council.
Goodman rarely backed losers, Mort said. She said that at least 90 percent of the candidates Goodman advised won their elections. She said if Goodman didn’t think a candidate was ready for office, he refused to take them as a client.
“He was my mentor, but more than my mentor,” Mort said Tuesday after attending Goodman’s funeral service, where she was a reader. “He was like a father to me. He took me under his wings and taught me the business.”
They worked on several campaigns and events, culminating with the city’s Bicentennial celebration in 1991. In 2011, Mort, then on city council, spearheaded the Bicentennial Commons being named in Goodman’s honor.
Throughout the planning of the bicentennial events, Mort, Bob Croake, Sharon Easter-Hughes and Jack Howard — what Goodman called the “railroad group” because they pushed everything through — met at noon every Wednesday in Goodman’s office on Breiel Boulevard. Mort made sure to bring Goodman’s favorite meal: Big Mac, french fries and milk shake.
“He was a very, very good listener,” Mort said. “He heard the problems, threw out ideas and off you went.”
And in the last several years, those meetings have been recreated and included Mort, Doug Bean and Jack Howard. They talked about the gossip and what was happening behind the scenes, she said.
“He’s the last of a breed,” Mort said. “I will miss him.”
He also possessed a quick wit, remembered T. Duane Gordon, executive director of the Middletown Community Foundation.
In 2007, Gordon, then new to the MCF, sent a letter to Goodman and his wife, Dorothy. But in the letter, Gordon mistakenly called her Mary.
“He responded by writing back something like: ‘I don’t know Mary. I’ve never met Mary. My wife, Dorothy, doesn’t know Mary. And I hope my wife never finds out about Mary. If Mary were to exist and Dorothy were to meet her, that would pose a significant problem for me. So for the sake of my marriage, please refrain from sending any additional mail to our home addressed to Mary,’” Gordon said.
Then he added: “It actually went on for several paragraphs, and I found it hilarious. It was masterfully written, and he certainly got his point across with a healthy dose of humor and sarcasm. And it worked because we never got Dorothy’s name wrong on anything after that.”
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