Goodrow, Harold Ray

Harold Ray Goodrow, 87, died Friday, Jan. 1, 2010, at the Cartmell Home, where he had been a resident since 1996 and had lived with multiple sclerosis for many years.

Mr. Goodrow was born on July 5, 1922, in Cedar Rapids. He was the oldest of three sons born to Grace Noll Bell and Harold Curtis Goodrow. His great-grandfather, Cyrille Goodreau, immigrated to the United States from Quebec, Canada, in the 1850s and eventually settled near Cedar Rapids.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Virginia McKinzie Goodrow.

He is survived by brothers, Gene Goodrow of Cedar Rapids and Rover Goodrow of Moline, Ill.; daughters Virginia (Gin) Goodrow and Ruth Regehr, both of the Pert Community, and Frances Martin of Austin; son, Ray McKinzie Goodrow of Alexandria, Va.

Mr. Goodrow was a graduate of Roosevelt High School in Cedar Rapids and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. While stationed in Houston, he met the former Virginia McKinzie, daughter of Carter Davis and Eunice Elrod McKinzie of the Pert Community (Mt. Vernon) in Anderson County. They were married in Houston on Sept. 4, 1943. Following the war, the Goodrows made their home in Palestine. Mr. Goodrow was employed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Mr. Goodrow received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Industrial Arts in 1951 and Master of Education in 1962, both from Sam Houston State University. He started teaching in Hull Daisetta in 1955, taught science and math in Liberty from 1963 to 1973, and retired from Westwood in 1978.

Mr. Goodrow was a member of the Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in the Pert Community and served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees when the education building was built in 1984. He was treasurer of the brushy Creek Arbor restoration committee in the early 1980s.