After graduating from Dexter High School in 1976, David earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1985. He worked a variety of jobs in construction and finance, later finding a rewarding career as a financial analyst for Borders Group, Inc., where he helped set up bookstore cafes domestically and internationally.
He is best remembered by friends and family as a lifelong scholar and dedicated problem-solver, whose inexhaustible work ethic always had him balancing several large projects at once.
Along with his wife, Dorothea, David built up a small, one-story building on Woodlawn Avenue into a multi-story home where his children grew up. In his basement workshop, which he described as “in a permanent state of end-stage entropy,” he labored over numerous inventions. These included a shooting target mechanism that spun as one hit each bullseye and a rotating frame that allowed him to build cedar strip canoes without the use of staples.
A talented musician, David played the violin, trumpet, banjo, bugle, guitar, bagpipes, and of course, his Civil War replica fife, which could be heard from anywhere in the Lower Burns Park neighborhood and was the inspiration for the license plate, “Fifer D,” on his beloved green Mazda Miata.
David’s enduring zeal for all things Civil War stemmed from him reading the letters of his veteran ancestors at a young age. Over his lifetime, that scholarly passion led to participating in Civil War-era shooting competitions and demonstrations in full period regalia, performing with Camp Chase Fifes and Drums, and dragging his family to almost every battlefield in the U.S.
His hobbies also included transcribing music by ear and writing his novel - a seafaring adventure story set in the near future.
His love of animals was extended to beloved dog and cat, the backyard birds he fed every day, and even to various neighborhood pests that he humanely re-homed, but it stopped short of a pilfering groundhog who provoked David into turning his garden into a fortress.
David was a devoted husband and father who took great pride in his children’s education and accomplishments.
David is survived by his wife, Dorothea (Vincent) Goodwin; his brothers, William B. Goodwin and Mark G. Goodwin; and his children, Caitlin (Goodwin) Larson and Ryan Goodwin.
A remembrance service will honor David at the home he constructed on October 24, 2 – 6 PM.
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