Richard Emory Goodspeed

Richard Emory Goodspeed, known to his friends as “Dick Goodspeed,” was born April 3, 1928, in
Dubuque, Iowa, to Rose [Anderson] Goodspeed and Lynmore Sanford Goodspeed, and died January
19, 2025, in Bedford, Texas. He grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He married his high school
sweetheart, Betty Arlene Aho, in 1951 in Fitchburg.
Dick was a “man for all seasons:” Navy aviator, husband and father, engineer, choir director, editor,
teacher, scuba diver, jewelry maker, opera lover, traveler. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval
Academy, where he graduated in 1950. He attended flight school in Pensacola, Florida, and flew
helicopters throughout his Navy career. He earned an M.S. Degree in Aeronautical Engineering at
Princeton University and a B.A. degree in English from the University of Maryland. He served as an
instrument flight instructor at Culdrose Royal Naval Air Station in Cornwall, England, in the early
1960s. Later he worked as an engineer at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in White Oak, Maryland.
During the last four years of his time in the Navy, he taught English and aeronautical engineering at the
Naval Academy. He left the Navy in 1970 with the rank of lieutenant commander and went to work as
proposal editor at Bell Helicopter in Hurst, Texas. He retired after five years and moved with Betty and
daughter Joy to Key West, Florida. After another three years, they moved back to Hurst, where they
remained.
Always an enthusiastic choir singer, Dick took a part-time job as a church choir director in many of the
locations where he was stationed by the Navy. Of course, his kids were drafted into the choirs, where
they learned about music and cooperation. Dick supported Betty’s art career by expertly making
canvases, framing her paintings and helping set up her shows. During the 1970s, he began to make
jewelry, which he displayed and sold alongside Betty’s paintings. Dick enjoyed playing and teaching
racquetball well into his eighties.
Dick and Betty were longtime members of Peace Lutheran Church in Hurst, Texas. After Betty passed
away, Dick married Susan K. Bublitz in 2013, whom he met in the Peace choir. Dick is survived by
wife Susan K. Goodspeed of Hurst, Texas, sons Grant S. Goodspeed of Benton Harbor, Michigan, and
Glenn R. Goodspeed of Fort Worth, Texas, daughter Joy K. Goodspeed of Sarasota, Florida, and
grandchildren Carly R. Diaz and Severn N. Goodspeed of Seminole, Florida.