Necrology

Robert Harrington Goodhand '54

Jul. 5, 1932-Aug. 24, 2023

Robert Harrington Goodhand ’54, P’76 died on Aug. 24, 2023, in Landrum, S.C. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., on July 5, 1932, he was raised in Rochester and came to Hamilton from the Allendale School in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford. On the Hill, he joined the Psi Upsilon fraternity and majored in French, which provided the foundation of his subsequent academic career. Bob was president of the freshman class and a member of the Doers & Thinkers honor society as a sophomore. He was also a member of the golf team.

In his junior year, Bob met Judith Hobbs, a student at Syracuse University. They were married in Pittsford, N.Y., her hometown, on Sept. 5, 1953, just before the start of the fall semester of Bob’s senior year. They lived in North Village until he graduated and would have four children.

Their next destination was Rice Institute (now Rice University), where Bob completed his master’s degree in 1956. The title of his thesis was "Saint-Exupéry : La conception du héros telle qu'elle est réalisée dans la vie et dans l'œuvre de Saint-Exupéry." (In English: “Saint-Exupéry: The conception of the hero as it is realized in the life and in the work of Saint-Exupéry.”)

His master’s degree in hand, Bob remained at Rice for his doctoral studies. His first year in that program was underwritten in part by a Fulbright Travel Grant as well as by an assistantship from the French government under the terms of which he taught English in Bordeaux during the 1956-57 academic year. He received his doctorate in 1961, and the title of his dissertation this time was: “Analyse de la technique psychologique dans l ‘oeuvre romanesque de Jean Giraudoux.” (In English: “Analysis of the psychological technique in the novelistic work of Jean Giraudoux.”)

By August 1961, he and Judith had left Houston for Durham, N.C., where he accepted an appointment in Duke University’s French Department. In 1963, they moved to Gambier, Ohio, where he joined the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at Kenyon College as an assistant professor. Kenyon would be his professional home for the next 30 years. Bob ascended the academic ranks, becoming associate professor in 1966 and full professor in 1973. By 1978, he began a term as chair of the department.

His courses covered a wide variety of subjects centered on French literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, including feminist studies — a subject that, broadly speaking, came into focus in American higher education during his career — French critical theory, and interdisciplinary studies.

Bob’s commitment to teaching was reflected in part by his attending a seminar sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities at the University of Pittsburgh in the summer of 1978. The subject was not some dimension of French literature, or even literature more broadly speaking. Rather it was devoted to examining various pedagogies designed to teach writing more effectively to undergraduates regardless of discipline. This at a time when the principle of “writing across the curriculum” was becoming a widely adopted academic policy.

In tandem with his work as a teacher, Bob pursued research in French literature. In 1984, he received a summer grant to study the writing of the French existentialist Albert Camus. That same year he took a leave of absence to teach at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. In the course of his career, Bob published articles on several French authors: Gustave Flaubert, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Albert Camus, and Alain Robbe-Grillet.

Bob’s marriage to Judith ended in 1981. On Nov. 10, 1985, Bob attended a singles dance in Columbus, Ohio. One of the attendees was Pan Frere, who met Bob 15 minutes after she arrived at the dance. They hit it off almost immediately and married in February 1986. They resided in a home Bob had built on a lake in the planned community of Apple Valley, just a few miles from Gambier. It included a studio where the couple created works in stained glass. Bob had learned to work in the medium from a local master and he, in turn, educated Pan in the art.

In 1987, he took a year’s leave from Kenyon to become director of the Paris office of Sweet Briar College’s Junior Year in France program for the 1987-88 academic year. This provided frequent opportunities for Bob and Pan to travel in France and elsewhere in Europe. Whether he crossed paths with participants in Hamilton’s program in Paris is unknown. Other engagements with foreign study would include involvement with the Kenyon-Earlham Program in France and serving as director of the Great Lakes Colleges Association Middle East Program in Beirut. 

Throughout his life, Bob was politically and often vocally active, demonstrating at the Pentagon (where, coincidentally, his stepfather, a brigadier general, had an office); challenging American policies regarding the Palestinian people, while drawing from his experiences teaching in Beirut; as well as opposing U.S. policies regarding El Salvador and other Central American nations, among other causes.

In 1992, he took early retirement from Kenyon due to health concerns. At its Commencement that year, the college awarded him the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters for his impact upon his students as a “celebrant, rebel, literary agent provocateur [who had] animated countless students to embrace life and literature with ardor, nonconformity, and discernment. Challenging complacency in many guises, [he] supported and implemented programs for discovering new ways to live and learn in the academy and in the world.”

Bob and Pan departed Apple Valley for Wilmington, N.C., where he devoted several years to editing manuscripts intended for publication. He taught occasionally at Cape Fear Community College and worked on his golf game in order to maintain his 6-handicap. He and Pan continued to travel extensively: Tanzania, Egypt, Morocco, and Costa Rica were among their destinations, as was a two-week windjammer cruise in the Grenadine Islands.

Over the next 32 years, the Goodhands lived in several communities along the border between the two Carolinas. In addition to Wilmington, these included Landrum, S.C., twice; Tryon, N.C.; and Columbus, N.C. All homes naturally included a studio for Pan and Bob’s stained-glass art. 

In his 40th reunion yearbook, Bob was quite direct on one subject: “Hamilton had no influence at all upon my saturnine political views.” Nonetheless, “seminal courses” included Paul Parker’s classes on art history and those on French literature taught by Marcel Moraud and Franklin Hamlin.

Robert H. Goodhand is survived by his wife, three daughters, including Lynne Goodhand Hodge K’76, one son, and seven grandchildren.

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