Jack Goodman, who labored to persuade the Texas Legislature to generate a conservation district to enable safeguard Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer and then served on that district’s board for 22 many years, died Aug. 24 just after a prolonged illness. He was 76.
His spouse, former Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman, advised the Austin Watch she programs to keep a memorial service all-around the time of his birthday in November, that will be outdoors in a park near their household in South Austin. She also expects to have some sort of virtual memorial actions on Fb.
Jack and Jackie were being married in 1966 and moved to Austin in 1967. Jack graduated from the University of Texas with a diploma in psychology. The couple grew up in El Paso and returned there for a small time right before returning to Austin in the early 1970s, just as environmentalists have been starting off to get structured. Jack labored for the Reduce Colorado River Authority for many decades.
The pair had always been associated in social justice difficulties, but when they returned to Austin, they saw the want to safeguard the surroundings, particularly Barton Springs and the creeks of South Austin.
Craig Smith, who at this time serves on the board of the BSEACD, remembered each Goodmans’ involvement with the Help save Barton Creek Affiliation, the place each of them served as president of the group over the decades. While not as greatly acknowledged as the Save Our Springs Alliance, SBCA was ready to increase money in more substantial quantities than other groups due to the fact of its bingo recreation. The two teams teamed up on numerous instances to file lawsuits to guard the atmosphere.
Jack Goodman and Wes Halverson labored alongside one another to get started Austin Youth River Watch, which Goodman was associated with for quite a few yrs. Younger folks joining the business study how to exam water in creeks and in the Colorado River, furnishing worthwhile data about pollutants. The team gained original funding from the Reduced Colorado River Authority and the metropolis of Austin. It proceeds currently with assistance mostly from the LCRA.
Jackie claimed her partner preferred to assist youngsters broaden their horizons, and by functioning to defend the ecosystem, lots of acquired expertise that eventually led them to positions in scientific and environmental fields. In the course of his a long time of involvement with the river look at group, Goodman was part of a task to take Texas teenagers to Russia to meet a group of youngsters monitoring the Pravda River. This took location during the time that the Soviet Union had collapsed and Russia was reaching out to the West.
The adhering to calendar year, a team of Russian adolescents arrived to Austin to meet up with users of the Colorado River team and find out how they monitored nearby waterways. Young children from faculties up and down the river, like Bastrop and Fayetteville, participated. The Preserve Barton Creek Association also sponsored a vacation for Jack to Peru, the place he labored to train youngsters there about monitoring pollutants in waterways.
In addition to his operate with the river watch, Jack was a member of the city’s Environmental Board for several many years, serving as chair for several of all those decades.
His spouse was elected to Town Council, the place she served from 1993 to 2005. Following stepping down from Council, Jackie worked for numerous small companies. Nonetheless, right after Jack had a stroke many several years in the past she quit get the job done to treatment for him, and is now dealing with health-related bills and other charges. (The metropolis gives no pension for Council users.) Alfred Stanley, a longtime mate of the Goodmans, has established up a GoFundMe web page to enable the loved ones.
The Austin Monitor’s function is designed attainable by donations from the community. While our reporting handles donors from time to time, we are thorough to keep enterprise and editorial efforts independent when sustaining transparency. A entire checklist of donors is out there in this article, and our code of ethics is defined listed here. This story has been altered since publication to appropriate the assertion that Goodman was the longest-serving Council member.
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