Roger B. Goodman, author and English teacher, dies

Published author and English teacher Roger B. Goodman was a war veteran who loved the arts, literature and the theater.

Goodman, of Plainview, died Friday after suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia. He was 93.

Goodman was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn and attended Townsend Harris Hall High School in Manhattan. He attended the City College of New York, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English.

After being drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II, Goodman served as an officer in field artillery and then as a teacher. He was later recalled during the Korean War.

Goodman met Laura Rosenblum when he was a summer camp waiter and she was a swimming instructor in the early 1940s. They were married in 1942.

"They were married for 61 years," said Peter Goodman, 66, of Syosset, whose mother died in 2003 and was also a teacher and school librarian. "They were devoted to one another. They loved each other deeply."

His father also taught English at Erasmus Hall, Brooklyn Technical, Grover Cleveland and Stuyvesant high schools during the 1950s and '60s. He retired in 1972 as chairman of the English Department of Stuyvesant.

"He was a magnificent teacher," said Peter Goodman, a former music critic for Newsday who teaches journalism at Hofstra University. "He loved teaching, he loved literature and he loved working with students."

Goodman wrote several books about English grammar and vocabulary, including a book with a collection of short stories titled "75 Short Masterpieces." He also was one of the founders of the Roundabout Theatre, the nation's largest not-for-profit theater company, operating five Broadway and Off-Broadway houses.

"They were amateur actors who decided to get together," Peter Goodman said. "They were very proud of it, and it became what it was now."

The family is sitting shiva this afternoon at the Goodmans' home in Syosset. A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Ethical Culture Society of New York, in Manhattan.

In addition to his son Peter, he is survived by his son David of Manhattan; and grandsons Leo of Astoria, and Stephen of Pittsburgh.