Philadelphia City Council is honoring the 50th Wedding Anniversary of the Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. and Mrs. Velma Williams Goode on August 20, 2010, through a resolution unanimously approved on June 3, 2010.
WHEREAS, W. Wilson Goode, born on August 19, 1938, was the son of sharecroppers. He moved to Philadelphia as a teenager in the 1950s. For more than forty years, the Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. has been a leader. He has led in the military, the government (federal, state and local levels), the Church, and through civic, social action and neighborhood organizations; and,
WHEREAS, Velma H. Williams Goode was born and raised in Littleton, North Carolina. She received her secondary education with high honors from McIver High School before migrating to the City of Brotherly Love in 1958. She studied at the University of Pennsylvania where she was employed for 27 years. She retired as an Administrative Coordinator of Graduate Studies for the Biomedical Graduate Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania in 1996; and,
WHEREAS, Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. is director and organizer of the nationally acclaimed Amachi Program, a national faith-based mentoring model for children of incarcerated parents. He is an ordained Baptist Minister with over 50 years service at the First Baptist Church of Paschall. Goode has served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He also led ground-breaking work in faith-based housing for low and moderate income persons. He was the first African American member and later chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. He again broke racial barriers with his appointment as Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia. He would follow that as the City’s first African American Mayor for two terms. He subsequently spent seven years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education under the Clinton Administration. He has earned degrees from Morgan State University (BA), the University of Pennsylvania (MA), Eastern Baptist [now Palmer] Theological Seminary (D. Min.), and fourteen honorary doctorates; and,
WHEREAS, Mrs. Velma W. Goode has received more than 30 awards and recognitions for her civic, religious and volunteer services. She has served as President of the Baptist Ministers’ Wives and Ministers’ Widow Union and Chair of the Paschall Helping Hands Community Development Corporation. She has also served as Church Clerk and President of the Board of Deaconess of the First Baptist Church of Paschall. In addition, Velma W. Goode is a Former Board Member of the National and Local March of Dimes as well as the Philadelphia Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association; and,
WHEREAS, the mutual successes of the Reverend Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. and Mrs. Velma H. Williams Goode are due in large part to their marital union on August 20, 1960; and,
WHEREAS, their union is also responsible for the success of their three children: Muriel L. Goode-Trufant, Chief of the Special Federal Litigation Division of the New York Law Department and First Lady of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn; The Honorable W. Wilson Goode, Jr., City Councilman-at-Large, City of Philadelphia; and Natasha P. Goode, Marketing Executive for Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta; and,
WHEREAS, Velma and Wilson Goode, who are affectionately called “Ma Ma” and “Pop Pop” by their two granddaughters Sharise and Toni Trufant, have also contributed to the success of these two young scholars; and,
WHEREAS, Wilson and Velma Goode will be forever admired by this legislative body for the dignity and grace that they embodied as this City’s first African American Mayor and First Lady; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Philadelphia does hereby honor and congratulate the Reverend Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. and Mrs. Velma H. Williams Goode on the occasion of their 50th Wedding Anniversary; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, that an engrossed copy of this Resolution be presented to Dr. and Mrs. Goode on August 20, 2010.
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