Gladys Whipple Goode Oral History Interview (1 of 2)

A native Oregonian, Gladys Whipple Goode spent most of her life here, but did move out of state to attend college and later to accept a job as the head of a department at a university in Illinois. After returning to Oregon, she married Delmer Goode, a fellow instructor and editor of publications for OAC. For a time, Goode taught at the college in the Home Arts Department. She and her husband officially settled in Corvallis in 1928, where both were active members of the community. In Goode’s first interview, she begins with what background information she can recall about her parents’ families.

She speaks at length about her maternal grandfather’s unfortunate loss of his bridge company to an uncouth business partner. It was ill-timed because her grandmother had cancer at that time. Shifting the focus from tragedy, Goode speaks about her parents and her siblings. She talks about her father’s work as an engineer for the railroad. The interview later segues into her activities as a teenager in Portland, which would inspire her to become a librarian. According to Goode, she was a branch librarian for two years.