Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues of Barbara Goodheart,
For those who don’t know me, I am Ken Goodheart, son of Barbara Goodheart. Our family is heartbroken to tell you that we lost Barbara on March 17th this year after a short illness.
As you may know, she was an amazing woman of multitudes – Wife of 70 years, mother of three, grandmother of two, great-grandmother of four, writer, editor, sailor, Francophile, champion of knowledge, amateur genealogist, personified elegance, best friend, modern woman, dessert fiend, and a merciless scrabble player.
Her absence is a vacuum that will never be filled, but her life echoes in the four generations of Goodhearts that she’s left behind.
On Saturday, June 15, at noon Eastern time, we plan to have a Celebration of her life in the Community Room at the Coral Ridge Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she lived the last eleven years. You are cordially invited to share in this Celebration.
We understand many will not be able to attend in person, so all are welcome to join the Celebration on Zoom. Please start to join 15 minutes early (at 11:45 a.m. Eastern) because Zoom may need to download the app or update it. Click here to connect to the call Link to Zoom call (you may need to click a second link on a redirect page).
In lieu of flowers, consider donating in Barbara’s name to the American Cancer Society. Click here to donate American Cancer Society – Give in Honor & Memorial
Thank you,
Barbara’s Family
Last month AT Forum lost its longtime writer Barbara Goodheart, an accomplished medical writer, suddenly. Below is a remembrance written by her husband Clyde. I recently told colleagues that I missed her so much, but could not remember the last conversation (of many) that we had, because as in so many things in life, I didn’t know it would be the last. In addition to everything Clyde writes, I would need to add this anecdote. Barbara loved nature and wrote about it with the clear-sightedness of some of the greatest nature writers, who never let sentiment overtake the reality of life. She autographed her book, The Desert, to my children. They love it but more to the point, so do I. I can easily see why she was such an easy person to work with, but someone who never, never gave in to hyperbole or agendas. I will always miss her. Thank you Clyde, and our deepest condolences to all who knew her, especially you and her children.
Barbara Goodheart
July 13, 1934 – March 17, 2024
It is with great sorrow, sadness, and grief that I report Barbara’s death.
It is also with great pleasure that I remember the wonderful marriage we had. Barbara was born and raised in Chicago, and we met when I was a senior at Northwestern University and she was a sophomore. I was a lab instructor in Comparative Anatomy and Barbara was a student in my section. As students were finding seats on the first day, she saw a book on the table, looked at the first page, saw my signature, and said, “What a funny name—whose book is this?” I told her it was mine, but she still did fine in the course.
We started dating when the course was over and I soon proposed. Our ceremony was in 1953, the day after Christmas—70 years and 3 months ago. What a beautiful lifetime she gave me!
As our kids grew up, Barbara took up writing. She was a talented writer, able to write in many styles, for varied audiences. She had articles in various magazines, including several in Better Homes and Gardens; one was on how to tune your own car. She researched the article by successfully tuning our car, despite not knowing anything about what’s under the hood. She also wrote a children’s book on American deserts, several books on diabetes, and a thriller novel. Moving into medical writing, she wrote numerous training programs for pharmaceutical sales reps. Her favorite was writing scripts for medical training videos, for which she won awards.
For AT Forum, Barbara relied on her strong science background and ability to read, understand, and translate primary literature on opioid treatment for professional subscribers to the website as well as for nonprofessional visitors.
To assure herself that what she wrote accurately presented the main points, Barbara sent a prefinal draft to the authors of the study for their approval and additional comments. Feedback from those authors was always quite positive and helpful.
In the mid-1970s, we started sailing. She was very proud to buy our sailboat using her income from writing. We sailed on Lake Michigan nearly every weekend (weather permitting!) for the next 30 years.
Barbara’s final years were full of surgeries, pain, and multiple doctor visits, making her life quite unpleasant.
Barbara is survived by our two adult children and me.
I will miss the best friend I ever had.
In loving memory,
Clyde
Memories of Barbara Goodheart
I first met Barbara in 2018 while I was helping my friend Susan Emerson with this ATForum
publication. We both lost a good friend that next year Susan died in April 2019.
As we all adjusted to the sudden loss of Susan we became a team. Helping each other through
many trials and tribulations. But we were always there for each other.
The past few years we continued to work together through some very trying situations. Barbara
was more than just a technical writer for our publication. She became a friend whom I could
reach out to when needing one. Which the past couple of years I needed one more often. She
will be greatly missed.
Clyde, I only knew her for a few short years, yet she has made such a huge impact on my life. I
am so sorry for your loss of 70-plus years. I knew she had children because she spoke so highly
of them. Please know I am praying for you and your family in these difficult times.
Joy Jacoby friend and colleague