Charles True Goodsell (born July 23, 1932) is
Professor Emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at
Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy. He is perhaps best known for his volume ''The Case for Bureaucracy'', now in its 4th edition.
Goodsell is a co-author of the ''Blacksburg Manifesto'', written with
Gary Wamsley
Gary L. Wamsley is public administration specialist and professor emeritus at Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy.
He is perhaps best known as the coordinating editor of Refounding Public Administration, a work that follo ...
,
Robert Bacher, Philip Kronenberg,
John Rohr
John Anthony Rohr (July 31, 1934 – August 10, 2011)''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American political scientist who was Professor Emeritus at the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Vi ...
, Camilla Stivers, Orion White, and James Wolf – all of whom were at Virginia Tech during the 1980s. In 1994, Goodsell was elected as a fellow of the
National Academy of Public Administration.
Early life and education
Charles T. Goodsell was born in
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...
on July 23, 1932. He is the son of former
Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo College, also known as Kalamazoo, K College, KC or simply K, is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, Kalamazoo is the oldest private college in ...
President Charles Goodsell and Francess Comee Goodsell.
[Ead.lib.virginia.edu. (2005). A Guide to the Charles Goodsell Collection 1982–2001 Goodsell, Charles Collection Ms2004-012. Retrieved October 14, 2015, from http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=vt/viblbv00165.xml#bioghist_1.1] Goodsell earned his
BA degree at Kalamazoo College in 1954.
Goodsell graduated ''
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
'' and was awarded the William G. Howard Memorial Prize in political science and the Oakley Prize for highest grade recorded for a college course. After graduating, Goodsell enlisted in the United States Army and served from 1954 to 1956. Goodsell then obtained his PhD at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
where he was a student of
V. O. Key, Jr.
Academic career
Goodsell began his academic teaching career as an assistant professor of
public administration
Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...
at the
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...
in 1961. In 1964 he became a research associate at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. Two years later in 1966, he became a professor of political science at
Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois.
Board of trustees
The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...
. In 1978, Charles Goodsell began teaching at Virginia Tech University as a professor of public administration and public affairs and served as director of the university's Center for Public Administration and Policy.
Goodsell continued to teach at Virginia Tech University until he retired in 2002, although he remained at the university as professor emeritus. During his career, Goodsell was also a distinguished visitor at
Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...
, Carleton University and the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
at Austin.
Author
In ''The Case for Bureaucracy: A Public Administration Polemic'', Charles Goodsell takes the position that the generally disparaging view of bureaucracy is unwarranted, and that the "quality of public service in the United states is vastly underrated".
Originally published in 1983, it is Goodsell's best known work. Intended to be a rebuttal to the popular notion of bureaucracy as a callous, oppressive, and dysfunctional machine, it has been the recipient of much praise within the field of public administration.
Since its original release, there have been 3 subsequent editions, with the 4th edition being released in December 2003.
In Goodsell's 2011 book, ''Mission Mystique: Belief Systems in Public Agencies'', he examines six United States public agencies, including the
US National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
, the
US National Weather Service, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
, and the
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...
, among others.
In ''The American statehouse: Interpreting democracy's temples'', Goodsell reviews all fifty United States’ capitals and their buildings.
He uses three concepts to interpret government architecture in the social sense: the search for political values in the buildings, the effects of the building on behavior, and the impression the buildings make on society. Additionally, all of the photographs used in the book were taken by Goodsell.
References
Additional publications
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External links
Curriculum Vitae (Summary)at the Center for Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Tech
Charles Goodsell on Governing Spaceat 2013 Ridenour Faculty Fellowship Conference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodsell, Charles T.
American political scientists
Harvard University alumni
Virginia Tech faculty
Writers from Virginia
People from Blacksburg, Virginia
1932 births
Living people
Public administration scholars
Place of birth missing (living people)