Richard Philip “Dick” Godwin – Undersecretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan

Richard Philip “Dick” Godwin, 82, passed away in San Rafael on
March 3, 2005, from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Dick was born
in 1922 in Clifton, New Jersey, and grew up in New Britain,
Connecticut. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Yale
University. He served in the U. S. Navy from 1943 to 1946,
initially in the V-12 program and later as an engineering and
commanding officer of escort and landing ships with the Pacific
Fleet. After the war, Dick became a machine tool designer and chief
metallurgist for New Britain Machine Company in New Britain. He met
his future wife, Reatha “Rickie” Trumble of Walla Walla, Washington
whom he married in 1947. They later moved to Hanford, Washington,
where Dick became a reactor engineer for the new Atomic Energy
Commission. In 1953 Godwin was assigned to the AEC’s Livermore
Laboratory in California to develop and test the first
thermonuclear weapons. In 1956, at the age of 34, he was called to
Washington D.C. to become the project director for the development
of the first nuclear powered merchant ship, the N. S. Savannah, a
key element of President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative.
In 1961, Dick joined Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco, and
moved his family to San Rafael, California. Among the many
accomplishments for which he was responsible at Bechtel was the
development of Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia. Godwin left
Bechtel in 1986 to accept President Reagan’s nomination as the
first U. S. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition. This post
was created by Congress with a broad mandate to reform and manage
the research, development and production of all weapons systems for
all four of the armed services. Returning to California in 1988,
Godwin retired to his Moss Oak Ranch in Healdsburg. Beginning a
14-year “retirement” in the Northern California wine industry, he
converted 40 acres of Moss Oak into award winning vineyards. Also
during this “retirement”, Dick became the associate producer of two
successful Broadway productions, Crazy for You, a Tony and Olivier
Award winner in 1992, and Kiss Me, Kate in 1999. Dick and Rickie
moved back to San Rafael in 2002. Among other lifetime
accomplishments, Godwin was a member of the Department of Defense
Science Board, a trustee of the American University of Beirut, and
a corporate director of Adolph Coors Company, Airgas Corp.,
Associated Vintage Group, Defense Group, Inc., and ICF/Kaiser. He
received the “Eminent Engineer of the Year” award from the
University of California in 1982. Dick was surrounded by his family
when he passed: his beloved wife of 57 years, Rickie, and his four
adoring and proud children, Richard Jeffrey Godwin of Rockville,
Maryland, Lauren Godwin DeConde of Novato, Peggy Godwin Bettini of
San Rafael, and Kent Francis Godwin of Santa Rosa. Dick leaves
behind nine grandchildren, Christopher, Ross, Hillary, Jennifer,
Sara, Alex, Andrew, Ashley and Katie. He is lovingly remembered by
his daughters- and sons-in-law, Gigi Godwin, Ken DeConde, Brian
Bettini and Lori Godwin, and numerous nephews and nieces. Dick is
also survived by his brother, Paul A. Godwin of Clinton,
Connecticut and his sister Ruth Godwin Travers of Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida. A private memorial will be held. The family asks that, in
lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the organization that is
researching the causes of, and possible cures for, PSP. They are
the Society for PSP, Woodholme Medical Building, Suite 515, 1838
Greene Tree Road, Baltimore, MD, 21209. (http://www.psp.org/).