Dr. Mary Good, Saluted by Science

It was just as well. As a child growing up in Texas, Dr. Mary Good preferred being outdoors. “I was pretty much a tom boy in a way. My father was a semi-pro baseball player in the Texas League, so I was always brought up with sports.” Today, she still enjoys fly fishing.

It seems an unlikely beginning for a girl who would eventually attain three degrees in chemistry, several honorary degrees “that don’t really count,” and a professional reputation as one of the scientific community’s foremost experts, but Good did get interested in the lab before leaving home — just not the chemistry lab. “I built my own little darkroom and made pictures and just enjoyed that sort of experimentation,” she said.

After that, an illustrious career developed — one made more unique by the times. Good was one of few women students in college in the 1940s, and things didn’t change much by the time she took her first job at Louisiana State University. As an instructor in and director of the radio chemistry lab, Good was one of only three women on staff in the department.

By 1980, she had become the only female member of the administration and the vice president of research for UOP, a company that developed technology and then licensed it to other companies. “It was a fun assignment because you had the opportunity to design and invent new things and the ability to get them into the market really fast,” Good said.

In 1987, she became the highest-ranking woman in a technology research role in the U.S. as the senior vice president of technology for all of Allied Signal, “managing God knows how many engineers” and trying to keep up with several different technologies. Aerospace technology excited Good the most, but she also became involved in automotive technology.

After five years in that position, Good was considering retirement when the Clinton Administration called, interested in installing her as the Undersecretary of Technology in the Department of Commerce. The scientific community had submitted her name. After all, Good had served as the president of the American Chemistry Society, chairman of the National Science Board, was a science and technology adviser to President George H.W. Bush, and was a decorated professional whose awards to date include the highest honors from both the American Chemistry Society and the National Science Foundation among many others.

But there was also a personal connection. Clinton knew that she was from Arkansas because her sister was the medical director at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and was Chelsea Clinton’s pediatrician. Good accepted the demanding job, providing policy and analysis statements for technology-based business issues, traveling a lot and working on a cooperative research program between the government and major car companies aimed at bringing cars that got 80 miles per gallon to the market by 2003. “We actually made quite a lot of progress but didn’t move as fast as we should have because they were doing very well selling other kinds of cars.” Good is still involved in that area, chairing a group in Washington, D.C. that advocates for federal funding.

Good also worked some with President Clinton, enough that “I would say we’re certainly friends,” she said. “I was always impressed by the fact that he remembered where he was from.” She worked closely with him regarding the plane crash that killed Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and 32 others, and as Clinton was about to address employees of the commerce department, “he said, ‘You know, it’s sure different from Yell County,’ and she said, ‘Yes, sir, Mr. President, it sure is.’”

Good made her way back to Arkansas to become the founding dean of the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1999. Today, at 78, she still holds the position and will be honored at the college’s tenth anniversary, at which Clinton will speak. The past decade hasn’t brought a single typical day, she said, but in general she says her duties are to clear a path for the college’s outstanding faculty members so they can make their own accomplishments.

Looking back over the past 10 years provides Good with plenty to brag about. The renowned college is known for its information quality program, earthquake center, nanotechnology center and much more. “What I’m most excited about is the quality of the students we’re putting out the door.”

As for looking forward 10 years? “I wasn’t even good at predicting how [technology] would change in the last three.” And so, even with a career of experience behind her, Good finds herself back in a darkroom of sorts, eagerly waiting to see what develops.