[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21376]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE LIFE OF NANCY GOOD

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DIANA DeGETTE

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 19, 2011

  Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life of a longtime 
constituent of mine who recently passed away. Nancy Good was a social 
and political activist whose career, which was focused on bettering the 
lives of others, spanned several decades and three continents. Nancy 
was especially committed to furthering the cause of civil rights, and 
was an enthusiastic advocate of racially integrated neighborhoods, a 
cause she worked on both in Washington, DC, and Denver. She died August 
24th at St. Joseph's Hospital in Denver after a brief illness at the 
age of 89.
  After World War II, she worked in Germany to repatriate displaced 
persons for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration 
(UNRRA) and edited the agency newsletter. It was during this time that 
she met her husband, Robert C. Good, and together they opened a 
settlement house under the sponsorship of the American Friends Service 
Committee in Frankfurt in 1947, work for which she was honored fifty 
years later by the German government.
  Nancy moved to Denver with her family in 1953 and worked for the 
Social Science Foundation at the University of Denver (D.U.). She 
worked with community groups to establish fair housing practices among 
Denver realtors. She was also very active with the ACLU during this 
time.
  A long career detour took the Goods to Washington, DC, where Nancy 
worked for the Washington Planning and Housing Agency. Nancy organized 
Democracy in Action, which took groups of DC junior high school 
students to meet with Senators, Supreme Court Justices and members of 
the Kennedy administration to learn firsthand about the workings of the 
federal government. The Goods lived in France in 1959, and in 1965, her 
husband was appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, where Nancy 
remained active with the Girl Guides and with hunger relief projects.
  In 1971 the Goods moved back to Denver when Bob Good was appointed 
head of the Graduate School of International Studies at D.U. Nancy 
worked for Mayor Bill McNichols's Commission on Community Relations 
(working with John Simonet on police sensitivity training among other 
issues) and Commission on Aging (where she started the Wise Old Owls 
gift shop to sell crafts made by seniors). Her proudest accomplishment 
at this time was helping to start Denver's first Community Gardens 
project under the leadership of Min Yasui.
  In 1976 the Goods moved to Granville, Ohio, when Bob Good became 
President of Denison University. At Denison, Nancy oversaw a three year 
renovation of a derelict Victorian building in the center of the 
campus, which became the Good's residence and the center of social and 
intellectual life of the university. Bob and Nancy returned to Denver 
in 1984.
  Nancy was a proud longtime Democratic Party activist. She worked on 
election after election, bringing in cadres of volunteers to elect the 
Jerry Kopels, Pat Schroeders and Wellington Webbs of Denver. She was a 
member of the Downtown Democratic Forum, the Social Legislation 
Committee and the League of Women Voters, and spent her life fighting 
for positive social change in her community.
  It may be for a more light-hearted institution, however, that she 
will be remembered by generations of Denver children. ``Eggnog for 
Eggheads,'' a Christmas party, was given by Nancy for 40 consecutive 
years. The party eventually grew to become an all-day affair with a 
guest list of over 1,000 attendees including Mayors, Congresswomen and 
professors who mingled with Nancy's Park Hill neighbors. Kids built 
houses, castles and other architectural wonders from sugar cubes and 
frosting in the Goods' basement which were later donated to children in 
hospitals across the city. In honor of the popular gathering, Mayor 
Wellington Webb declared ``Eggnog for Eggheads Day'' in Denver on 
December 3rd 1996.
  Nancy is greatly missed by friends and family and will be remembered 
most for her enthusiastic nature, zest for life, and commitment to 
political and social change and for the great love she had for her 
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

                          ____________________