Charlotte Margolis Goodman
Professor Emerita of English Charlotte Margolis Goodman, author, feminist scholar, and specialist in American literature, died June 8, 2024. She was 90.
Charlotte, who for 27 years taught courses in writing, fiction, drama, and women’s literature, helped to develop Skidmore’s women’s studies major, and championed the causes of women and people of color.
She and her husband, David, moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2008 to reside at The Colonnades retirement community. David passed away in 2011, and Charlotte remained in independent living for many years, leading numerous literary-focused groups, including play reading, memoir writing, and the art of the short story.
After joining the College’s faculty in 1974, Charlotte’s participation in department and college governance was continuous and significant, the latter including service on the Committee on Academic Freedom and Rights, the Faculty Development Committee, the Curriculum Committee, the Women’s Studies Committee, the University Without Walls (UWW) Committee, and Phi Beta Kappa. She was particularly committed to UWW and Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) students, as well as those in developmental writing courses.
In 1990, she served as president of the Northeast Modern Language Association. She was also awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.
In terms of scholarship, Charlotte devoted her energies to revising the literary canon to include more female writers, producing many reviews and essays analyzing the characters of such writers as Harriette Arnow, Joyce Carol Oates, and Edith Wharton.
Her publications and conference papers include the forgotten novel “Weeds” (1923)
by Edith Summers Kelly, to which she contributed a biographical and critical afterward.
Her feminist biography “Jean Stafford: The Savage Heart” was published by the University
of Texas Press in 1990.
She discussed the challenges faced by women writers in her 1995 Edwin M. Moseley Faculty
Research Lecture, “Literary Biography: Fashioning a Female Subject.” Being selected
to deliver the Moseley Lecture is the highest honor a Skidmore faculty member can
receive from colleagues.
Charlotte was a much-loved teacher and mentor, known for her energy, humor, and passion
for her subject, as well as her ability to empower others.
“When I think of Charlotte, I think of her ardor, her energetic love for not only
her students but her subject of study and her work in the classroom,” said Professor
of English Barbara Black. “Her care for and interest in her colleagues are qualities
I will never forget.”
“Charlotte modeled what it means to be a professor at a small liberal arts college,” added Professor of English Catherine Golden. “[She] was the first to raise her hand in the Q and A after a lecture and she was a regular at every department event. At Women’s Studies potlucks, she made a point to introduce her colleagues across campus to each other. Indeed, when she retired, the fall potluck dinner was named after her.”
Professor of English Mason Stokes appreciated the hard work Charlotte did long before his arrival. “As a woman working on American women writers before such a thing was valued, she helped expand our sense of what was possible in an English department, and she made it possible for the rest of us to continue that expansion.”
Born April 13, 1934, in Brooklyn, along with her twin sister Vivian, Charlotte was a Phi Beta graduate of Wellesley College with a master’s degree in teaching from Harvard University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brandeis University. She married David, a medical student at Harvard, in 1955.
Charlotte was predeceased by her husband David and sister Anuita Blanc. She is survived
by her sister Vivian Rosenberg; daughter Andrea Hansell (Richard Ogden); sons Matthew
Goodman (Valerie Goodman) and Jeffrey Goodman (Margot Atuk); grandchildren, Julia
Preston, Julie Hansell, Adam Hansell, Sadie Goodman, and Jonah Goodman; and great-grandchildren,
Emil, Felix, and Ana- SofĂa.
Charlotte was buried in a private ceremony in the Hebrew Cemetery in Charlottesville.