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JOHN CLARK GOODRIDGE, son of John Clark and Sarah Tyler (Fowler)
Goodridge, was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, September 28, 1841. In his early boyhood the family moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where they remained until our
Senior year, when they removed to Brooklyn, New York. Our classmate was fitted for
college at Mr. Hyde's private school in Lee, Massachusetts. Being too young to enter
college after completing his course in Lee, he spent one year in the Pittsfield High
School. He passed the full course with our Class, a genial and popular classmate, a fair
scholar, manly, self-assertive, and generally esteemed. While in college, Goodridge
became a member of the Chi Psi fraternity; also of the Lyceum of Natural History and
was one of its vice-presidents during Senior year; and he was Ivy orator on the Class Day
program, July, 1863.
After leaving college, Goodridge attended medical lectures at Bellevue Medical
College, New York City, and Long Island Medical College, Brooklyn, New York; was
graduated at the latter and took the valedictory. He entered upon the practice of
surgery and medicine in Brooklyn successfully, being especially skillful in surgery. While
spending a summer, vacation abroad, his attention was attracted to certain patented
methods of manufacturing artificial stone known as "Beton Coignet." This was a French
patent[.] Goodridge bought this and made several improvements which he covered with
his own patents, and for a time devoted himself to the construction of bridges and
tunnels, piers, and structures where solid foundations were needed. Among his works is
the Cantilever Bridge across the Niagara River below the Falls. Our classmate prospered in this new venture and found a field of activity suited to his alert and
inventive mind. He resided in New York City and had a summer residence in Woodstock, New Jersey, not far from Perth Amboy.
Throughout his life, Goodridge was a man of the highest standing, of wide
influence and usefulness. He was ever a loyal Williams man, and a strong supporter of
the New York Williams Alumni Association, of which for two terms he was president.
At the time of his death, and for many years before, he was surveyor-general of
the East New Jersey Proprietors, an ancient organization peculiar to that State.
Goodridge was fond of scientific investigations and frequently contributed articles to
scientific publications.
One of his literary productions is of local interest to our college days. It was an
after-dinner address at the Alumni Association of New York City, January, 1889, entitled, "A Postprandial Reminiscence of the Life, Character, and Public Service of the
Late Lamented Bill Pratt." It is a careful understudy, so we may style it, of one of
Williams' sub-faculty, who has been, and ever will remain, without a successor. This one
sentence is a prefect characterization: "To the alumni, Bill was a happy reminiscence.
He was the bright lexicon of youth, the wellspring of etymology, the fountain of syntax,
the synthesis of prosodial ecstacy. While memory lasts, we shall not forget the razzle
dazzle of his vocabulary, the chiro-oscuro of his imagery, the weirdness of his metaphor,
the sparkling scintillations of his verbal pyrotechnics, all combined with the most
profound simplicity of thought."
During the last year of his life, our classmate seemed to lose his accustomed vigor,
although the exact cause was not apparent. In the early winter of 1900 he went to
Lakewood, New Jersey, for his health, but without benefit, and his death came quite
suddenly and was wholly unlooked for by his many friends, on the 28th of December,
1900.
In 1872, on the 28th day of December, Goodridge married Miss Margaret M.
Adriance, daughter of Isaac and Margaret E. Adriance, of New York City. Mrs.
Goodridge survives her husband. They had no children.
Source:
Class of Sixty-Three Williams College Fortieth Year Report, by
the Class Historian, Thomas Todd Printer, Boston, 1903
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