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Activist and Mystery Enthusiast

Sandra Goodrick ’66

April 11, 2024, in Seattle, Washington.

Sandra Clark Goodrick could often be found gardening, quilting, crafting with stationery, and perhaps most of all, reading. In particular, she loved mystery novels, and her tastes ranged from Agatha Christie and Rex Stout to Lee Child and Michael Connelly to Hazel Holt and M. C. Beaton.

Sandy, as she was known to friends, was born in Santa Monica, California on June 17, 1945, and was raised between there and the Midwest until she enrolled at Reed in 1962. While at Reed, she met and married Ray Raphael ’65, in 1963, and they participated in activism together during the civil rights movement before parting amicably. Sandy studied at Reed until 1966 and finished her bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1971 at Berkeley, where she met her second husband, Richard Goodrick. The two settled in the Berkeley Hills and had a son, John.

In the late ’80s, Sandy and her family moved to Seattle, where she discovered her love of mystery novels. Sandy spent a lot of time as a patron of the now-closed Seattle Mystery Bookshop on Cherry Street, and she led the Seattle Mystery Readers Club, which sometimes met there. The owner of the shop found the newsletter Sandy wrote for the club so charming that he asked her to write one for the bookshop, too. She soon became the shop’s bookkeeper and the writer of its newsletter, which was widely read and adored by mystery lovers.

In her last years, Sandy lived at the Ida Culver House in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle. She is survived by her husband, Richard, and her son, John. Sandy is remembered by loved ones for her warm laugh; her keen, thoughtful observations; and her devotion to her friends.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Fall 2024

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