Robert Charles Good Jr.
Robert Charles Good Jr. died peacefully in his sleep at Carlton Senior Living in Davis, California, on November 7. He was 102.
Born in Canton, Ohio, Bob was the only child of Robert Charles Sr. and Mary Cameron Good. He was a lifelong learner who continued to deepen his study and curiosity long into his retirement years.
Bob graduated from Lehigh University in 1940, having studied engineering and played football there. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II, serving as a Navy lieutenant from 1944 to 1946. After the war, he returned to Lehigh University, where he earned a doctorate in physics.
During his science and engineering career, Bob worked at DuPont, the Franklin Institute Science Laboratory, and the General Electric Space Sciences Laboratory. While at GE, he worked with the team that designed the infrared camera that was used on NASA's first launch — the one which first sent a chimpanzee into orbit on a Mercury rocket, paving the way for Alan Shepard's historic flight aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7.
As the first decade of space exploration began to wind down, Bob returned to school to obtain a teaching degree. He taught high school physics and chemistry at Rose Tree Media High School for seven years, then became an associate professor of engineering at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he taught electrical engineering until his retirement in 1985.
Through most of their working lives, Bob and his wife, Gen, lived in Swarthmore. In 1990, they sold their home and moved to Rocklin, California, to be closer to their daughter, Jayne, and son-in-law, the Rev. David George, and their family.
In 2018, the extended family gathered in Davis, California, to celebrate Bob's 100th birthday. It was an opportunity to reflect on Bob's radiating kindness, gentle spirit, and incisive engineering-mathematical mind. He was a minimalist who delighted in helping others grow, especially vocationally. In his 2010 book, “My Life in a Time of Changing Technology,” he notes:
"What I hope to leave behind is not praise for being a good person or a resumé of scientific pursuits and discoveries, but instead, a legacy of perseverance and choosing not to give up when things are tough. Disappointments can make you a better person. It's always a choice you have to make."
Bob is survived by his wife of 78 years, Genevre (Gen) Bennett Good; two children, Mark Cameron Good of Annapolis, Maryland, and Jayne Morton George of Oakland, California; seven grandchildren; and 21 great-grandchildren.
On Saturday, November 14, the family hosted a virtual memorial service, honoring the life of Robert Charles Good Jr. (1918-2020).
