Obituary for Hope Drury Goddard
Hope Drury Goddard died June 10, 2013 in Providence, Rhode Island. She was born in Newport, R.I., August 13, 1915. She lived her whole life in Rhode Island except for a year studying art and languages in Florence, Italy, and a year in New Orleans during World War II.
She was the daughter of the late William Holland Drury and Hope Curtis Drury of Middletown. Her younger sisters Katherine (her twin), Sarah, and Margaret, and brother William predeceased her. She and her twin sister were named for older sisters, also twins, who had died at birth.
She was married for 65 years to Robert H.I. Goddard of Providence, a businessman and philanthropist, described at his death on May 6, 2003, as “a giant in the state’s volunteer community.”
Mrs. Goddard leaves a daughter Margaret Leeson of South Kingstown, sons Ives (of Washington, D.C.), William (of Providence), Thomas (of Newport), and Moses (of Tiverton), their spouses, ten grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
At times home-schooled by a neighbor, she also attended Rogers High School in Newport and the Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence. She also took classes at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and the University of Florence.
Like both her parents Mrs. Goddard was an artist, working at first in watercolors and later in other media. Her paintings, typically of landscapes in the New England mountains, the West Indies and Greece, were exhibited at the Providence Art Club and the Newport Art Association as well as in shows and galleries in Boston, New York, London, Paris and elsewhere. She was a lifelong artist member of the Providence Art Club and an associate member of the American Watercolor Society.
Mrs. Goddard was a philanthropist and an active volunteer for many worthy causes in Rhode Island. In 1950, while serving as vice president, she helped to found the Children’s Concerts of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. She served as trustee on the boards of a number of educational and cultural institutions, including the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, The Mary C. Wheeler School, Moses Brown School, Gordon School, Meeting Street School, Marlboro College (Vermont), and Community Preparatory School. She was a founding member of Lippitt Hill Tutorial and the Public Education Fund as well as the Grandparents’ Guild of the Children’s Museum of Rhode Island, now the Providence Children’s Museum. She was also a volunteer art teacher in the Providence Public Schools for several years.
In addition, she served a number of local and national civic and charitable organizations in various capacities, among them the English Speaking Union, the National Council of Independent Schools, the Preservation Society of Newport County, the Norman Bird Sanctuary, St. Mary’s Home for Children, Nickerson House, the Rhode Island Association for the Blind, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, the Rhode Island Chamber Music Concerts and the Providence Female Charitable Society.
She was a lifelong member of the National Trust of Great Britain and was also a member of the New York Yacht Club, Spouting Rock Beach Association and the Hope Club.
During the Second World War she was a home-service volunteer for the Red Cross and was a volunteer nighttime “spotter” in the Ground Observer Corps for one summer in Narragansett.
An avid skier, Mrs. Goddard told her children that she would have been on the 1936 U.S. Olympic Ski Team had her father not disapproved. She had a life-long love of art, music, sailing and gardens and was an enthusiastic speaker of Italian, which she had learned while in Florence. From earliest childhood, she had a close association with the West Indian islands, particularly Antigua, where she had many friends. She had the reputation among those who knew her of being able to remember the names, relationships, and life histories of anyone and everyone she had ever met.
A memorial Evensong service will be held on her 98th birthday, August 13, 2013 at St. Columba’s Chapel, 55 Vaucluse Avenue, Middletown at 4:00 PM. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Save The Bay, Inc., 100 Save the Bay Drive, Providence, RI 02905.
A memorial Evensong service will be held on her 98th birthday, August 13, 2013 at St. Columba’s Chapel, 55 Vaucluse Avenue, Middletown at 4:00 PM. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Save The Bay, Inc., 100 Save the Bay Drive, Providence, RI 02905
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She was the daughter of the late William Holland Drury and Hope Curtis Drury of Middletown. Her younger sisters Katherine (her twin), Sarah, and Margaret, and brother William predeceased her. She and her twin sister were named for older sisters, also twins, who had died at birth.
She was married for 65 years to Robert H.I. Goddard of Providence, a businessman and philanthropist, described at his death on May 6, 2003, as “a giant in the state’s volunteer community.”
Mrs. Goddard leaves a daughter Margaret Leeson of South Kingstown, sons Ives (of Washington, D.C.), William (of Providence), Thomas (of Newport), and Moses (of Tiverton), their spouses, ten grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
At times home-schooled by a neighbor, she also attended Rogers High School in Newport and the Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence. She also took classes at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and the University of Florence.
Like both her parents Mrs. Goddard was an artist, working at first in watercolors and later in other media. Her paintings, typically of landscapes in the New England mountains, the West Indies and Greece, were exhibited at the Providence Art Club and the Newport Art Association as well as in shows and galleries in Boston, New York, London, Paris and elsewhere. She was a lifelong artist member of the Providence Art Club and an associate member of the American Watercolor Society.
Mrs. Goddard was a philanthropist and an active volunteer for many worthy causes in Rhode Island. In 1950, while serving as vice president, she helped to found the Children’s Concerts of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. She served as trustee on the boards of a number of educational and cultural institutions, including the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, The Mary C. Wheeler School, Moses Brown School, Gordon School, Meeting Street School, Marlboro College (Vermont), and Community Preparatory School. She was a founding member of Lippitt Hill Tutorial and the Public Education Fund as well as the Grandparents’ Guild of the Children’s Museum of Rhode Island, now the Providence Children’s Museum. She was also a volunteer art teacher in the Providence Public Schools for several years.
In addition, she served a number of local and national civic and charitable organizations in various capacities, among them the English Speaking Union, the National Council of Independent Schools, the Preservation Society of Newport County, the Norman Bird Sanctuary, St. Mary’s Home for Children, Nickerson House, the Rhode Island Association for the Blind, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, the Rhode Island Chamber Music Concerts and the Providence Female Charitable Society.
She was a lifelong member of the National Trust of Great Britain and was also a member of the New York Yacht Club, Spouting Rock Beach Association and the Hope Club.
During the Second World War she was a home-service volunteer for the Red Cross and was a volunteer nighttime “spotter” in the Ground Observer Corps for one summer in Narragansett.
An avid skier, Mrs. Goddard told her children that she would have been on the 1936 U.S. Olympic Ski Team had her father not disapproved. She had a life-long love of art, music, sailing and gardens and was an enthusiastic speaker of Italian, which she had learned while in Florence. From earliest childhood, she had a close association with the West Indian islands, particularly Antigua, where she had many friends. She had the reputation among those who knew her of being able to remember the names, relationships, and life histories of anyone and everyone she had ever met.
A memorial Evensong service will be held on her 98th birthday, August 13, 2013 at St. Columba’s Chapel, 55 Vaucluse Avenue, Middletown at 4:00 PM. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Save The Bay, Inc., 100 Save the Bay Drive, Providence, RI 02905.
A memorial Evensong service will be held on her 98th birthday, August 13, 2013 at St. Columba’s Chapel, 55 Vaucluse Avenue, Middletown at 4:00 PM. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Save The Bay, Inc., 100 Save the Bay Drive, Providence, RI 02905
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