Mary Ellen Hohiesel Goodman

A noted cultural anthropologist, Dr. Mary Ellen Hohiesel Goodman, California/Los Angeles - Alpha Chi, was that rare person who practiced what she preached. She believed that man was not just a creature of his culture or environment, but a creator of it. She believed that human beings are more than passive agents to be acted upon by the world, but rather very much actors and shapers of their world. Dr. Goodman was a professor of anthropology and sociology at Rice University and spent time in Japan as a Fulbright research scholar teaching at Kobe Women’s College. Upon her return to the States, Dr. Goodman taught at Tufts University, was Social Service Analyst for the United States Public Housing Authority and was coordinator of studies for the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth. She developed interests in Japanese fashions and Mexican-American culture and Mexican wall art. Mary Ellen did graduate work at Radcliffe College while working part-time as a fashion model in Boston. Both intelligent and beautiful, she was a model for Powers, a noted modeling agency in New York. Married to Clark Goodman, a nuclear physicist of considerable prominence, she was the author of numerous books and papers in her field. Mary Ellen Goodman was Delta Zeta Woman of the Year in 1963.