UPDATED 4 p.m. Jan. 14 Boiling Springs — Funeral services for Dan Goodman, professor at Gardner-Webb University’s (GWU) School of Divinity, will be 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at Boiling Springs Baptist Church.
Goodman, 40, died unexpectedly Jan. 13, according to school officials. He was professor and Bob D. Shepherd Chair of New Testament Interpretation.
Family will receive visitors 9-11 a.m. at the church on the 15th. Gifts in lieu of flowers will go toward college scholarships for Goodman's surviving sons, age 11 and 15.
“The Gardner-Webb University family has been profoundly saddened by the loss of Dr. Dan Goodman,” said Frank Bonner, Gardner-Webb president since 2005. “He was loved and admired by students, faculty, staff and all who knew him.
“Dr. Goodman was all that a university family could wish or hope for — a great teacher, an outstanding scholar and a wonderful colleague.”
Goodman is the fourth staff or faculty member at Gardner-Webb to die in the past 30 months, three of them unexpectedly.
Sid Haton, director athletic bands and instructor in music, died on campus Sept. 18, 2008.
In June of 2006 Vice President for Development David Boan was killed in a car accident and Bruce Rabon, assistant vice president for development, died from cancer.
Goodman joined the faculty of the divinity school in the fall of 2003 as associate professor of New Testament.
Prior to coming to North Carolina, he was associate professor of New Testament Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he was twice named Professor of the Year.
In 2004, Goodman was one of only ten theological school professors nationwide to be awarded the Theological Scholars Grant (by the Association of Theological Schools and the Lilly Foundation) for his project on the history of Baptist-Jewish relations.
Goodman regularly contributed to book reviews and journals. His primary research interests included Christian origins, Jesus and the gospels, hermeneutics, and Jewish-Christian dialogue. He also served as an interim pastor in Baptist churches in New York, New Jersey, Florida and North Carolina.
Rabbi Irving Greenberg, former chairman of the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and a national leader in Jewish-Christian dialogue in America, described Goodman as “an up-and-coming scholar” and “a leader in the new vision of interpretation and learning.”
The cause of Goodman’s death is unknown and funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time. He is survived by a wife and two sons.