Clement Tyson Goode, Jr.

Clement Tyson Goode Jr. died peacefully Tuesday, January 24, 2023, at the age of 93, after a brief and unexpected illness. A memorial service will be held at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 2, at First Baptist Church, Waco, with Matt Snowden and Alan Lefever co-officiating. A reception will follow in the Fellowship Hall.

Clement was born July 10, 1929, in Richmond, Virginia, where his father was an English professor at the University of Richmond. In 1941, after his father’s heart attack, the family moved to Lonoke, Arkansas, to be near relatives. From the seventh grade on, Clement worked a full-time job, in addition to going to school, to help support his mother. He attended Hendrix College where he graduated in 1951. As only a handful of Baptists attended this small Methodist school, Clement was destined to meet Jane, his wife of 65 years, there. After graduation Clement attended Vanderbilt University receiving his M.A. (1953) and Ph.D. (1959).

In 1957, Clement accepted a position in the English Department at Baylor University where he taught for 40 years, serving as Director of Graduate Studies in that department for 35 years. Over his career he published numerous book reviews and articles as well as two books on Lord Byron—the first, a history of Byron criticism from 1824-1973 and the second, a comprehensive annotated research bibliography on Byron which was awarded the Daingerfield Prize.

Clement was the first professor to teach in an exchange program between Baylor and Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan (1972-1973). His relationship with this program and the Japanese exchange students and teachers who came to Baylor continued for many years. In addition, he developed an independent program with Baiko Jo Gakuin in Shimonoseki, Japan, in which Baylor graduate students could teach for two years.

During his career, Clement was awarded a Southern Fellowship Grant, was named Outstanding Teacher by Student Congress, received an Outstanding Teacher Award from the Baylor faculty, and appeared in Outstanding Educators of America. His extracurricular activities on campus consisted of sponsorship of Pi Alpha Lamda (Chi Omega) for 11 years, founding sponsor of the Phoenix Literary Magazine and of the Baylor Film Society.

Clement was a longtime member of First Baptist Church (66 years) where he served as a deacon, Sunday School teacher, and sponsor of the College Training Union. He was also a member of a long-running Book Club and two Supper Clubs, each of which provided him with many decades of enrichment and friendships.

Teaching for Clement was not only his profession but his life. For him, the job was not simply to open up the joys of poetry and literature for the student but to teach the student how to think and read. By giving the student the tools of analysis—both the rational and the intuitive, the ability to find order and to read between the lines—the student could utilize these skills across the spectrum from the arts to the daily paper, from literature to the Bible. The whole idea of education was to get the student to discover for himself.

Clement is survived by his daughter, Sara Goode Lefever and husband, Alan, of Waco; and son, Robert Goode, of Seattle, Washington. In addition, Clement was especially close to his extended family in Birmingham, Alabama, where he found solace every summer for 50 years at his sister’s lake house.

The family is eternally grateful to his loving caregiver, Maria Varela and her family, as well as Brenda Thompson and Susie Pursley.

Memorials may be made to the Goode Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Baylor University, Baylor Gift Office, One Bear Place #97050, Waco, TX 76798.

The family invites you to leave a message or memory on our Tribute Wall at www.WHBfamily.com.