Patricia A. Goldman

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Patricia A. Goldman
Member of the National Transportation Safety Board
In office
June 1979 – February 5, 1988
  • Vice Chair: April 1982 – February 5, 1988
  • Acting Chair: May 1986 – August 1986
President
Preceded byPhilip Hogue
Succeeded byLee Dickinson
Personal details
Born
Patricia Ann Goldman

(1942-03-22)March 22, 1942
Newton, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedJuly 26, 2023(2023-07-26) (aged 81)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1978; died 1987)​
    Stephen Kurzman
    ​
    (m. 1990)​
EducationGoucher College (BA)

Patricia Ann Goldman (March 22, 1942 – July 26, 2023) was an American public official and women's rights advocate. She served on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) from 1979 to 1988, most of that time as vice chair.

An alumna of Goucher College, Goldman began her career in 1964 as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She worked for various political organizations, directing the Wednesday Group (a group of liberal Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives) and chairing the Republican Women's Task Force of the National Women's Political Caucus. She was appointed to the NTSB by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and reappointed by Ronald Reagan in 1984.

In 1988, Goldman entered the private sector as a senior vice president for USAir. She was later president of the WISH List and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, which she co-founded and served on the board of the Chautauqua Foundation.

Early life and education[edit]

Patricia Goldman was born in Newton, New Jersey, on March 22, 1942, to Jacob J. Goldman, a dentist, and Miriam L. (née Cassiday) Goldman, a former nurse and homemaker.[1][2] Her mother was Catholic and her father Jewish; she was raised Catholic, and later converted to Judaism.[1] She graduated from Goucher College, a women's liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland, with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1964.[3][4]

Career[edit]

National politics[edit]

Goldman began working in Washington, D.C., as a research assistant for the U.S. Congress's Joint Economic Committee during her senior year at Goucher in 1964.[3][5] She arrived in the capital as an independent but soon joined the Republican Party.[6][7] Though she planned to spend just a year there, she later joked, "I guess you could say I caught Potomac fever."[5][8] From 1965 to 1966, she was a legislative assistant for an ad hoc U.S. House subcommittee focused on the war on poverty (part of the Education and Labor Committee), hired by Representative Albert Quie as the Republican minority's lone staffer.[6][7][9]

Goldman worked as a research consultant for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1966 and then led poverty and workforce programs for the lobbying organization from 1967 to 1971 during a period of urban riots.[5][9][10] She provided legislative counsel to the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1971 and 1972.[9] She also wrote freelance for the political magazine National Journal in 1972.[3]

Politically, Goldman became aligned with the liberal wing of the Republican Party.[6][11] She labeled herself variously an independent, progressive, moderate, feminist, and "thinking person," adding, "I don't think a Republican feminist is an oxymoron."[6] She was one of the few Republicans present at the founding meeting of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) in 1971.[1] In 1985, Representative Olympia Snowe called her "just a wealth of information and advice" for women in politics.[6]

Goldman was the executive director of the U.S. House's Wednesday Group, a caucus of liberal Republicans, from 1972 to 1979,[3][12] coordinating legislative efforts among its 31 members.[8][13] She was also a board member of the Ripon Society, a liberal Republican think tank.[2][14] As the chair of the Republican Women's Task Force of the NWPC, at the 1976 Republican National Convention she helped secure the continued endorsement of the Equal Rights Amendment and tried to prevent the party platform from opposing Roe v. Wade.[1][15]

She held teaching positions as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School; a lecturer at the Brookings Institution; and a visiting professor with the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which sent her on visiting lectureships at universities across the country.[9][13][14]

Transportation safety[edit]

Goldman was a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent federal agency, for almost nine years. On the recommendation of Representative Barbara Mikulski and others,[16] President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, nominated her to an open Republican seat on the board on March 16, 1979,[17] to succeed Philip Hogue.[18] Before her Senate confirmation, in a meeting with White House counsel Robert Lipshutz, she promised to recuse herself from potential issues involving interests of her husband, former Senator Charles Goodell, who consulted for the Concorde supersonic airliner and held stock in oil and rail.[19] She had no prior technical knowledge but was trained on the job by staff experts.[5][16]

President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, named Goldman the board's vice chair on April 17, 1982;[20] reappointed her to the board on March 21, 1984;[21] and renamed her vice chair on June 5, 1986.[3] While some in the Republican Party considered her too liberal,[22] the Air Line Pilots Association endorsed her renomination.[16] She served as acting chair during a lapse in Jim Burnett's term from May to August 1986.[23] As vice chair and chair, she and Burnett took alternate weeks serving as part of the NTSB's Go Team, which investigated major accidents.[24] She was often quoted in the media as one of the "first investigators on the scene".[25] Notable events investigated by Goldman included the 1980 collapse of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, the 1982 crashes of World Airways Flight 30 in Boston and Pan Am Flight 759 in New Orleans, and the 1984 derailment of Amtrak's Montrealer in Vermont.[16]

A focus of the NTSB in the 1980s was the promotion of child safety seats, the nonuse of which the NTSB said contributed to 90 percent of infant fatalities in traffic collisions,[5][26] which according to Goldman "could have been prevented by the proper use of child safety seats".[27] Goldman and the NTSB petitioned for legislation in all fifty states to require the use of restraints for children under the age of four,[26][28] something that was accomplished in 1985,[29][30] and raised awareness to get the public to use them more frequently and correctly.[27][29] She remembered of her service on the NTSB, "You could see the results of what you were doing. That was interesting and gratifying."[5]

Goldman stepped down from the NTSB on February 5, 1988, replaced by Lee Dickinson and succeeded as vice chair by James Kolstad.[31][32] The previous year, she had been floated as a possible successor to Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole.[33] After leaving the board, Goldman joined the USAir Group as senior vice president of corporate communications on February 16, 1988.[31] One of the highest-ranking women in the aviation industry at the time, she was in charge of internal and external communication at USAir until her retirement at age 51 on January 31, 1994.[25][34]

Later career[edit]

In July 1985, Goldman participated in the World Conference on Women in Nairobi.[6] She became the chair of the board of trustees of her alma mater, Goucher College, in August 1985, having joined the board four years earlier.[6] She was the chair when, in May 1986, the board voted for the college to become coeducational, facing declines in enrollment but also opposition from some students.[35] She received an honorary degree at Goucher's commencement in 2010.[36]

Goldman served on the board of directors of Crown Central Petroleum from 1989 to 2000,[37] and the Chautauqua Foundation from 1992 to 2003.[5][38] In 1995, she became the president of the WISH List, a political action committee raising funds for female Republican candidates in favor of abortion rights.[4] After surviving ovarian cancer, in 1997 she co-founded and was the president of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (OCNA), an advocacy and patient support organization,[5][39] which merged into the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) in 2016.[40]

In April 2010, Toyota named Goldman to an independent six-person panel to investigate vehicle safety issues, which released a critical report in May 2011.[41]

Personal life[edit]

Goldman was the second wife of Charles Ellsworth Goodell, a Republican former senator from New York; they were married from July 1, 1978, until his death on January 21, 1987.[42][43]

Goldman married Stephen Kurzman, a lawyer who served as Assistant Secretary for Legislation under Elliot Richardson in the Nixon administration's Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, on May 20, 1990; they met in the 1960s, when he worked in the U.S. Congress, as a staffer for U.S. Senator Jacob Javits.[4][44] Beginning in the 1970s, she spent part of every summer at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.[2][5]

Death[edit]

Goldman died of viral pneumonia in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2023, at the age of 81.[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Goldman, Patricia (March 2021). "Interview with Patricia Goldman" (Interview). Interviewed by Judy Waxman. Veteran Feminists of America. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "Patricia Goldman Obituary (1942–2023)". The Washington Post. July 28–30, 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023 – via Legacy.com.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Designation of Patricia A. Goldman as Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board". American Presidency Project. June 5, 1986. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Mills, Kay (January 7, 1996). "Patricia Goldman: Still Trying to Link 'Pro-Choice' and Republican". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ford, John (August 21, 2013). "Chautauqua conversations: For Goldman, a life of politics, service and Chautauqua summers". The Chautauquan Daily. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Banisky, Sandy (October 13, 1985). "Career of Accidents and Purpose: Board chairman of Goucher has a jumpsuit side". The Baltimore Sun. p. 1G – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b Pakenham, Mary (July 17, 1965). "About Women in Washington". Chicago Tribune. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b Gozinski, Roberta (March 22, 1978). "'Political junkie' is speaker". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. p. 26 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b c d "National Transportation Safety Board Nomination of Patricia A. Goldman To Be a Member". American Presidency Project. March 16, 1979. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  10. ^ "Newton Woman Heads U.S. C of C Manpower, Poverty Programs". The News. Paterson, New Jersey. August 23, 1969. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Cose, Ellis (August 19, 1976). "Effects of GOP's conservatism". The Boston Globe. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Peters, Charles (May 8, 2012). "Tilting at Windmills". Washington Monthly. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  13. ^ a b "House GOP aide to visit Lafayette". The Morning Call. October 2, 1974. p. 42 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b "Visiting fellow named for Ripon College stay". Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. March 16, 1978. p. 29 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "GOP Women See Little Hope for ERA, Abortion Planks". The Star Press. August 10, 1976. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
    Richards, Carol R. (August 15, 1976). "Women's Factions Disagree". The News-Press. p. 7A – via Newspapers.com.
    Cose, Ellis (August 17, 1976). "Feminists fight for concessions at convention". The Boston Globe. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
    Dickman, Sharon (August 19, 1976). "GOP's Curious Alliance For Women". The Baltimore Sun. p. A1 – via Newspapers.com.
    O'Reilly, Jane (September 16, 1976). "Women's gazetteer goes west". The Boston Globe. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ a b c d Banisky, Sandy (October 13, 1985). "Patricia Goldman: board room to mountaintop". The Baltimore Sun. p. 10G – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Patterson, Kathleen (May 26, 1979). "Carter Turns to GOP for Women to Fill Jobs". Kansas City Times. p. 19A – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Witkin, Richard (June 1, 1979). "Problems Detected in Engine Mounting on 37 DC-10 Planes". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  19. ^ Glaser, Vera (May 13, 1979). "Conflict of Interest Can Turn into a Battle". The Buffalo News. p. F3 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Reagan Proclaims Armed Forces Day". Daily Press. April 18, 1982. p. A6 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Nomination of Patricia A. Goldman To Be a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. March 21, 1984. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  22. ^ "Reagan staff hierarchy includes sleek preppies—and a 'fat slob'". Billings Gazette. June 22, 1981. p. 2-A – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Safety board chairman not renominated". The News-Press. May 22, 1986. p. 2A – via Newspapers.com.
    "NTSB chairman sworn in". The Des Moines Register. August 15, 1986. p. 9A – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Inside: the Transportation Agencies". The Washington Post. December 4, 1985. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Prewitt, Edward (November 21, 1988). "On the Rise". Fortune. Retrieved July 26, 2023 – via CNN Money. Oft-quoted in her former position as one of the first investigators on the scene of plane crashes ...
  26. ^ a b "State Laws Urged on Child Car Seats". The New York Times. December 8, 1982. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  27. ^ a b Sinclair, Molly (December 29, 1982). "Push Is On to Require Child Safety Restraint Seats in Cars". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  28. ^ Mann, Judy (December 22, 1982). "Child Safety". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  29. ^ a b "U.S. Seeks Wider Use Of Car Seats for Young". The New York Times. January 29, 1985. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  30. ^ "State Legislative Activities Concerning the Use of Seat Belts – United States, 1985". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 34(33);505–8,513. August 23, 1985. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  31. ^ a b "Nation". Los Angeles Times. January 29, 1988. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  32. ^ NTSB successors:
    "Lemoine V. Dickinson, Jr., To Be a Member, National Transportation Safety Board". Nominations—April–May: Hearings Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. 1988. p. 43 – via Google Books.
    Barr, Stephen (March 22, 1988). "BATF Employee Fired for Refusal to Wear a Tie". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  33. ^ "3 Women Called Top Contenders To Take Elizabeth Dole's Post". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. September 28, 1987. p. 6B – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ Kohn, Bernie (January 4, 1994). "USAir's top PR executive retires early". The Charlotte Observer. p. 2D – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ Pressley, Sue Anne (May 11, 1986). "Goucher College To Admit Men". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
    Landers, Chris (October 16, 2015). "Better dead than coed?". Goucher Magazine. Goucher College. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  36. ^ "Looking to the Future, Celebrating the Past" (PDF). Goucher Quarterly. Goucher College. Summer–Fall 2010. p. 23. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  37. ^ "Appointments". The Washington Post. May 8, 1989. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
    Henry, Kristine (November 14, 2000). "Crown proposes slate of insiders". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021.
  38. ^ "Chautauqua Foundation Board of Directors". Chautauqua Institution. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  39. ^ Lowry, Vicky (June 25, 2000). "Researchers Fix Their Sights on an Elusive Silent Killer". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  40. ^ "History". Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  41. ^ "Toyota Fills Out Its North American Quality Advisory Panel". Kelley Blue Book. April 30, 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
    Ohnsman, Alan (May 24, 2011). "Toyota Panel Cites Lack of Control, Need for Safety Chief". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on June 19, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  42. ^ "Miss Goldman, C. E. Goodell Wed". The New York Times. July 2, 1978. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  43. ^ Lynn, Frank (January 22, 1987). "Charles E. Goodell, Former Senator, Is Dead at 60". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  44. ^ "Patricia Goldman Married in Capital". The New York Times. May 20, 1990. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
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