Goddard, Wesley (1915-2003)
Date Updated
10-9-2019
Department
Foreign Languages and Humanities
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
1977
Educational Background
University of Paris, 1950 DUP
U.C. Berkeley, 1939 MA
Swarthmore College, 1937 BA
San Jose State University, 1932‑33
Teaching Experience
San Jose State University, 1939-1977
Selected Publications
Preface to Composition (with Paul Roberts), Harper, 1948; revised edition, 1955.
Phaedra by Jean Racine (translated), Chandler, 1961.
Files
Personal Commentary
My career at San Jose State University spanned 38 years, less 3 years in the Army and another 3 years with the Cal State International Programs as resident director in France and Italy. I used to be impressed by those figures, but now that I am completing my 19th year of retirement, my workaday life seems less important.
Nineteen years. What have I done to fill them? For a while I spent most of my time in my basement woodworking shop, until my family's various houses could contain no more furniture. Then for a dozen years, under the auspices of the local Alliance Francaise, I acted, directed, designed, produced (together with my wife and sons) an annual play in French at the Villa Montalvo in Saratoga. But once again I have retired.
Retirement seems‑‑happily‑‑to be the culmination and goal of all my activity.
Date Completed: 9/96
Adapted from: Biographies of Retired Faculty San Jose State University 1997: A Project of the Emeritus Faculty Association of San Jose State University. San Jose, CA: The University, 1997.