Goodwin, Richard N.

Richard Naradhoff Goodwin (b. 1931) graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1953. He went on to study law at Harvard University, graduated summa cum laude in 1958 and joined the Massachusetts State bar the same year. After clerking for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1958, Goodwin came to Senator John F. Kennedy's attention in 1959 while working as special counsel to the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Goodwin joined Kennedy's speech writing staff in 1959, and after Kennedy's successful presidential bid, served as assistant special counsel to the President in 1961. Goodwin was also a member of Kennedy's Task Force on Latin American Affairs and in 1961, was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, a position he held until 1963. As one of Kennedy's specialists in Latin-American affairs, Goodwin helped develop the Alliance for Progress, an economic development program for Latin America. From 1963 to 1964, Goodwin served as secretary-general of the International Peace Corps and in 1964 became special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Goodwin left government service in 1965, though returned briefly in 1968 to write speeches for presidential candidates Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and Edmund Muskie. After leaving government, Goodwin served as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut from 1965 to 1967 and as a visiting professor of public affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968. Along with acting as a contributor to Rolling Stone and The New Yorker, Goodwin has published numerous books, articles and plays. Goodwin is married to Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.