Feb 16, 2020 5 min read

There’s a Washington Countian whose name may never have appeared in a local story about Black History Month, but he’s someone who comes to the fore when the president of the Washington Branch of the NAACP was asked about influential figures in his life.

Sidney Goudy was born in York, Ala., and he did not graduate from high school. He moved to Canton Township, mining coal in the Washington area. He didn’t want to see his son follow his footsteps underground.

“If he didn’t inspire me, I doubt I would have had the desire to go to college,” said Dr. Andrew Goudy, a retired chemistry professor and university dean who leads two local organizations including the NAACP.

Goudy, 76, of Washington, attended Trinity High School. Chemistry was his passion, and it came easily to him, so he hoped to embark on a career in science.

He thought a stint in the U.S. Army could be his ticket to college under the GI Bill, but Uncle Sam rejected him based on the result of a physical exam.

“Nobody at Trinity told me about scholarships,” Goudy recalled in a recent interview. “Graduating from high school it seemed that my dreams were squashed.”

But with his father’s encouragement, the son continued to live under the roof of the family home while working two jobs, one as a dishwasher in a local restaurant, and another scrubbing floors.

“For two years, I saved up every penny,” he recalled. Washington & Jefferson College was too expensive, but he could afford Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which he remembers costing $125 a semester in 1963.

Goudy earning both bachelor’s of science degree and a master’s degree in analytical chemistry enabled him to land a teaching position at Canon-McMillan High School.

“I was the first in my family to even go to college,” Goudy said. “And my parents were so proud.”

After two years at Canon-Mac, he chose to return to school to study for a doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, a move his parents questioned because they saw it as “giving up a good job,” said Goudy, who hoped to teach at the college level.

When he joined the faculty of the chemistry department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, his mother and father visited.

“They came to see me,” he remembered. “They couldn’t believe I was actually a professor.”

Despite Sidney Goudy’s years working in mines, he lived to be 103. And he lives on in his son’s memory.

The professor moved to Delaware State University in 2001 to teach physical chemistry and guide the research of graduate and undergraduate students. He became chairman of the department and director for the university’s Center for Hydrogen Storage Research. One project dealt with a process bonding hydrogen with another element, rubidium, until it would be quickly released.

The objective of the rubidium hydride system was to power automobiles, for which the inventors received a patent.

Japanese and German automakers were interested in hydrogen-powered cars, but in the United States, rechargeable batteries are seen as the fuel of the future.

“We haven’t made any money off of it yet,” Goudy said of the hydrogen storage endeavor. “Electric cars seem to be taking all the business away.”

He was also acting dean of the College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology for a year before retiring in 2017. Goudy then moved to North Strabane Township to be closer to family.

He was interested in the work of the NAACP and began attending meetings. Before long, he was elected president.

Under his leadership, the NAACP sponsored a well-attended, non-partisan candidates’ night for county and local candidates last fall. His two-year term lasts through the year’s end.

“We plan to be very active with our political action committee,” he said in a recent interview. “We are going to have our voter registration drives. Pennsylvania is a key battleground state, so I think it’s important to get as many people to the polls as we can.

“There are so many people who are apathetic.”

The NAACP gets many calls from people with discrimination complaints about housing, employment and schooling.

After finding that the Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance was listed on the Washington School District calendar for 2018-19 as “Inclement Weather Day #1,” he asked that it be rectified.

King’s name was added to the current calendar, which, if needed to make up for a prior school cancellation, would include activities geared toward the slain civil rights leader, Goudy said.

Last July, he was also elected president for a yearlong term of the Washington Rotary Club, mirroring a position he held with a Dover, Del., Rotary club.

Rotary’s motto is “service above self,” and he said he would like to see members of the NAACP and Rotary Club interact.

“They are both community-based organizations,” he said. “We haven’t done that yet, but I’m still thinking about that. It’s hard to get people to buy into new ideas. Change is something that is challenging.”

Alluding to his academic background, he also hopes to establish collaborative projects between the NAACP and W&J. College students are to be interviewing NAACP members, and Goudy said he hopes to see a business incubator encourage minority participation.

Improving relationships between police and the black community is another of his goals.

“There’s a feeling of hostility, there’s no doubt about that,” Goudy said, wanting to arrange for a “sit-down in a very positive way.

“It might be an ambitious agenda to try to make change, but I’m going to give it a shot.”