Robert Lewis Goodwin

Robert L. Goodwin, age 94, of Oriental and Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, and a retired electronics engineer, died January 31, 2025 from vascular disease in Grantsboro, North Carolina. He had formerly lived in Syosset, Long Island, NY and in Rockville, MD before moving to Oriental, NC in 2000.

Born on June 22, 1930, he was the son of the late, George H., Sr. and Amelia F. (Fanny) Goodwin, and was a native of Ware, MA. Mr. Goodwin was Valedictorian of the Ware High School Clas of 1947. During the Korean War, he served in the U.S. Navy as an Electronics Technician. In 1958, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; he also did graduate studies at what later became the Polytechnic University of NY.

Mr. Goodwin spent his entire professional career in military-electronics research and development. He worked at several industrial organizations in New York and Maryland from 1958 to 1972. Then, until 1990, he was a Senior Staff Consultant at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Navy’s corporate research center in the Washington DC area. He originated, secured funding for, and directed a number of projects in broadband microwave receivers, precision direction-finding, as well as several novel pattern recognition programs for radar-signal identification. In this latter field, he held four classified/U.S. Government patents, as well as one civil U.S. patent.

Mr. Goodwin received the Navy Superior Civilian Service award from the Chief of Naval Research in 1982 for his work in pulsed-radar signal identification. While at NRL, he wrote over 25 classified reports, served on both U.S. and international working groups in signal processing, and received four Allen R. Berman Research Publication Awards.

Retiring from government service in 1990, Mr. Goodwin then formed Rho-Gamma Associated, Inc., consulting to government agencies on military-electronics problems. He ended this work in 1995. Later, he returned to military-electronics consulting activities from 2001 to 2004. In 1998, his prior work in radar-signal identification was honored at the NRL 75th Jubilee Celebration, having been named as one of the “NRL’s seventy-five most innovative programs” since the Laboratory’s founding in 1923. He was a member of several honorary fraternities: Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi (respectively) scholastic, research, and engineering. Mr. Goodwin was also a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Mr. Goodwin was predeceased by his wife, Virginia Ann Jenks-Goodwin of Oriental, NC, whom he married in 2000. His first wife, the former, Dorothy May Sargend of Harford CT, died in 1996. His sister, Alba Mae Goodwin-White, formerly of Watertown MA, died in 1988.

Mr. Goodwin is survived by a daughter, Carol Marie Mancini of Harrisburg NC; a son, James Edward Goodwin of Middletown MD; his brother, George Hamilton Goodwin, Jr. of Topsham and Waterford ME; and two nieces, Susan Goodwin and Nancy Goodwin-Brown. He is also survived by three sons of Mrs. Jenks-Goodwin from an earlier marriage, Charles W. Snader of Chesapeake VA, Glen F. of Pollocksville NC, and James A. of Kinston NC.

Services will be announced at a later date.