Norfolk —Stanley David Goodman died on the morning of January 28, 2018.
Stanley was a native and lifelong resident of Norfolk. Born in 1929, Stanley was the son of Norfolk natives Jacob Goodman and Tillie Legum Goodman. Schooled in the Norfolk Public Schools System, Stanley was a 1947 graduate of Maury High School and a 1951 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Stanley’s early life was dominated by sports. He excelled at them and was a multi-sport star at Maury. Stanley was the first recipient of the Norfolk Sports Club “Sportsman of the Year” award in 1946 and played baseball at UNC during his four years there. After college, Stanley was drafted by the Boston Red Sox and played on the Club’s minor league team in California. Stanley also was a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in Busan, South Korea during the Korean War.
Throughout all of his life, Stanley was dedicated to his religion and to his temple, Congregation Beth El of Norfolk, where he was a lifelong member and where all of his life-cycle events took place. The importance of Judaism and of Beth El to Stanley and the role they played in his life could not be overstated. Until only a few weeks before his death, Stanley served as a gabbai at Beth El and for many decades was one of the temple’s daily “minyanaires.”
Stanley is survived by his loving wife, Paula, his three sons Scott and his wife Debbi of Charlottesville, Wayne of Norfolk, and Lance and his partner Richard Stern of Boston, his grandchildren Justin (Cara), Drew (Katherine), Alex, Daniel (Lindsay), Jean (fiancé Robert Baker) and Rose, his great-granddaughter Scottie, his sister Ellen Goodman Miller of New York City, his step-sons Jonathan Friedman and Steven Friedman, his nieces and nephews and many cousins. Besides his parents, Stanley was predeceased by his brother and sister-in-law, Leonard and Ginny Goodman.
A funeral and burial took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Donations in Stanley’s memory and honor may be made to Congregation Beth El. H.D. Oliver.