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Community Corner

Canton Couple Celebrates 60th Anniversary This Year

Dr. and Mrs. Theodore Goodman talk about the keys to their successful marriage on Valentine's Day.

They were set up on a blind date in 1951, and 60 years later they are still going strong.

Doris and Ted Goodman say the secret to a together is to give each other respect, do not go to bed mad and do not hold a grudge.

“You can’t stay together for 60 years if you don’t have some sort of tolerance of different ideas…and respect for each other is very important,” said Doris, adding the couple was friends first, though Ted argues he fell in with her the moment he met her.

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The couple met at a fraternity party while students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Their names were matched up alphabetically when the list of boys was aligned with the list of girls to see which boy would invite which girl to the dance. Then junior-Ted invited freshman-Doris to the party.

“In those days you didn’t go out unless you had a date,” said Doris, now 80-years- old. “I was thrilled to be going to the first dance of the year. And he was a big, tall guy and very good looking. We just hit it off.”

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“She was good-looking and she was nice; I liked what I saw and then she grew on me,” said Ted, now 82, with a big smile. “I never wanted to date anyone else after that.”

They married three years later and their life has been an adventure ever since.

The couple married on September 1, 1951, just as Doris was about to start her senior year of college. Ted had graduated from UMass so Doris transferred to Boston University because the couple thought Ted would attend medical school in Boston. He actually attended the University of Vermont so the newlyweds spent their first year of marriage living in different states.

“Once a month I would fly up to see my husband,” said Doris.

After Doris graduated from BU, the couple lived in Burlington, VT, while Ted finished medical school, then lived with her parents in Brookline while he did his internship and residency at Boston City Floating Hospital, and then moved to Amarillo, Texas where Ted was stationed with the Air Force (and where their first son Billy was born).

Their youngest son Andy was born a few years later after the Goodmans bought their home in Canton on February 12, 1960.

The couple has enjoyed many good years in their Canton neighborhood noting that “half the town of Canton learned to swim” in their pool, and where they continue to entertain most summer weekends.

“We cook out, we drink, we love just being with our friends…We’ve had some good times,” said Doris.

“We love the town of Canton,” said Ted, who was a pediatrician in town for many years until his retirement five years ago.

The Goodmans have both been involved with various Canton boards, committees and causes throughout the years including the implementation of an Inter-Faith Group that met in the early 1960s that included representatives from all the churches and temples in town. The group has since disbanded but the clergy group still meets a few times a year.

These days the Goodmans enjoy spending time with family and friends, participating in activities at the , traveling by tour bus and cruise, and playing with their electronics like the Kindle Doris gave Ted recently.

Asked what advice they could impart on young couples starting out today, the Goodmans agree that respect and honesty are primary keys to success.

“They have to talk to each other, be completely open with each other about everything. Husbands and wives should be open about their financial situation and decide together what they should spend and what they should save,” said Doris. “And they should not live beyond their means because if they do and they have money problems, they’re going to be fighting all the time.”

 “Husbands have to let their wives in…and husbands have to learn to say ‘Yes, Dear,’” said Ted with a twinkle in his eye.

The Goodmans have “two wonderful sons” (Billy in New Jersey and Andy in Needham), “two fabulous daughters-in-law,” four of the “most wonderful grandchildren in the world,” and a long-lasting marriage to be celebrated this Valentine’s Day.

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