David L. Goodnight was born July 30, 1940 in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He was the second of six children and grew up in the Coraopolis Church of God in Christ. At Moon High School, he played basketball, ran hurdles on the track team, and co-edited his senior yearbook.
He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from The Pennsylvania State University in 1962 and moved to Washington, D.C., after he graduated.
During his college years, he was treasurer of Omega Psi Phi, Nu chapter and a member of the jazz club. He enjoyed college life at Penn State where he met his wife Patricia Alexander.
Along his career journey with the federal government, he worked as a computer specialist for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later as an analyst with the Internal Revenue Service. He was active in both AIM (Association for the Improvement of Minorities) IRS and Toastmasters.
In their leisure time, David and Patricia went on a number of cruises. They saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, walked the Champs-Élysées and traveled down the Nile. When they weren’t vacationing, they were cheering on the Nittany Lions or the Maryland Terps because their daughter was a University of Maryland graduate.
Always generous, David surprised his wife and daughter with a 7-day trip to Cuba with the Penn State Alumni Association. He made the travel arrangements for them shortly before his 2014 stroke.
To quote his older grandson, “Papa Goodnight was a good man.”
His parents Willard Sr. and Eva Goodnight and his younger brother Kenneth preceded David in death. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; his daughter Lisa; his son-in-law, Willard Alexander Sturdivant III; two grandsons, Willard Alexander Sturdivant IV and Tyler Junot Sturdivant; his mother-in-law, Alice Alexander; his brother, Willard Jr. (Jacqueline); three sisters, Evyonne G. Martin (David), Ercell G. Martin (the late Douglas Martin), and Beverly Goodnight; two nieces, Deborah Martin and Michelle Christian (Bryant); two nephews, Mark Goodnight and Rev. Marlon Martin (Ellise); and a host of dear family members and friends.
