Bishop Walter Kenneth Goodson, 1912-1991

Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Daniel Washington and Sarah Alice Peeler Goodson on September 25.1912. He was called by God to be a preacher of the Bishop W. Kenneth Goodson was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Daniel Washington and Sarah Alice Peeler Goodson on September 25, 1912. He was called by God to a preacher of the Word and the church has seldom had a more devoted servant. He loved the Methodist Church and the record of his pastorates is testimony to his faithfulness. After his early education in the public schools of Salisbury. he graduated from Catawba College in 1934 and entered the Divinity School of Duke University in the fall of that year. This school was his love and after retirement he returned there as teacher and mentor for faculty and students alike.

While conducting a funeral at Oak Ridge, his first appointment, he met the love of his life and in 1937 married Martha Ann Ogburn of Greensboro. She was the light and strength of his life and the heart of his ministry. Martha, as she is affectionately called by all who know her, survives him as their three children do, Ann (Mrs. Larry M. Faust), W. Kenneth, Jr., and Nancy (Mrs. Dilmus R. Richey), and 10 grandchildren. Kenneth Goodson was a family man, devoted to them each individually; and to all together. They were his family about whom he spoke with pride and deep affection.

He served for 27 years as a parish minister in the Western North Carolina conference of the Methodist Church. His appointments were Oak Ridge, West Market Street and Muir's Chapel in Greensboro, First Methodist Church in Wadesboro, High Point and Charlotte and Centenary churches in Winston-Salem. He also served for three years as the district superintendent of the Winston- Salem District. On July 8, 1964, he was elected a bishop of the Methodist Church and was assigned as episcopal leader of the Birmingham Area of the church which included the North Alabama and the Alabama-West Florida and ultimately the Central Alabama conferences. In 1972, he became bishop of the Richmond Area, the Virginia conference, the largest conference in the connection.

In Alabama, he is remembered as a man of unusual courage, a national Methodist leader who felt in his heart that the Christian Gospel and the church demanded an end to racial discrimination. After the Selma-Montgomery march, he was successful in arranging a meeting between Governor George Wallace and some of the leaders of that march. It marked the first time the governor had sat down to talk with a group of black leaders. This marked the turning point in improving relations between the races in Alabama.

Kenneth Goodson came to Virginia saying, "I come with no promises, except to love you and to love the church and most of all to love Jesus Christ. This is all I ask of you in return." The eight years he served as leader of Virginia Methodism were happy years, years of progress in all areas, years of service to Christ and his kingdom, and years of loving and being loved in return.

Ken Goodson had a remarkable capacity for caring. Other people talk about doing something for a friend. He did it. The telephone was an ever-present tool of his life. He used it! In his message at the memorial service in Centenary Church, Winston-Salem, Bishop Dwight Loder told of being met at the airport by a gentleman who said, "I am one of Ken Goodson's 10,000 best friends." He combated loneliness in a lonely job by making his associates his best friends. The Cabinet became his family and he and Martha were in and out of the homes of clergy so frequently that it was quite natural to welcome them in. I think of him as a "people person." His office door was always open, as open as his heart, to a person with a problem or a need. He didn't sit very much in his office but walked the halls of the United Methodist Building, dropping in on the staff persons he might find to hear about the work or pass the time of day. He was a great preacher but he also communicated wonderfully well, one to one.

His leadership capabilities were widely recognized as he became the first president of the General Commission on Religion and Race, first president of the General Board of Discipleship, and a member of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. In 1978, he became the first clergyperson to serve on the board of trustees of the Duke Endowment. He was the first active bishop to be invited to preach on the Methodist Series of the Protestant Hour. His series of sermons were under the title, "What God is Like." He was elected president of the Council of Bishops in 1976. The ministers and the conference honored him the best way they could by asking him to be the preacher for the Ministers' Convocation and for the 1980 session of the annual conference. Clergy and laity raised money to endow the Goodson Foundation for Homiletics in the hope that good preaching would be a source of constant inspiration to the clergy of the conference for years to come. Seldom does a conference have the privilege of having an episcopal leader with such a combination of dedication, warmth of spirit, and a captivating sense of humor.

After a long illness, W. Kenneth Goodson entered his eternal home Tuesday, September 17, 1991. The funeral was held at Centenary United Methodist Church, Winston-Salem, a church he once served as pastor. His longtime friend, Bishop Dwight E. Loder, preached the funeral sermon and Dr. George P. Robinson, pastor of Centenary Church, was lector. The burial was in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Greensboro.

In grateful thanks for the life of W. Kenneth Goodson, friend and brother, we commend his spirit to God the Father who gives us life.

 

-James W. Turner