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Harry Gooder passed away on Thursday, May 31. Many knew Harry during his years on the M&I faculty (1961-1996), and he served as acting/interim Chair four times. He is the only member of our Department to have been elected to a term as Chair of the UNC Faculty (1989-1991), and he also served as Chair of the Meetings Board of the American Society for Microbiology (1978-1988).

All of this experience in leadership left Harry with a deep appreciation of UNC’s culture of collegiality and shared governance, and he wrote this 25 years ago: “I had the good fortune of falling into a group of stimulating and diverse, nurturing colleagues. Everyone’s door has always been open, equipment and ideas have been shared, yet my colleagues have remained individuals, each with their own personality. As a group we are now five times the number we were when I arrived and rarely during this time have any left voluntarily, though many received tempting offers. Such an atmosphere can develop only when factions and cliques do not arise and individuals are supported and encouraged to pursue their dreams with a minimum of interference. It takes enlightened and generous leaders to allow this to occur and we have been blessed in this regard.”

Harry’s obituary