Inez Good 1923-2018

Inez Everling Good, associate professor of modern languages, emerita, died on Jan. 7, 2018 after a short battle with pneumonia. Prof. Good, who was born in Germany and came to America on a foreign exchange program in 1951, was 94.

An obituary noted that Good and her husband, Sam R. Good, were lifelong professors at Roanoke College, she teaching German and French, and he teaching theater. "She met her husband and the love of her life...in 1952 on a blind date at Roanoke College," the obituary noted.

Inez Good made an impact on generations of students during her time in the classroom at Roanoke.

In 2008, John Long '89, who taught at Roanoke at the time, interviewed Good when the NPR StoryCorps booth set up in Roanoke.

In the interview, Good talked about growing up in Germany under the rule of Adolph Hitler. At the beginning of World War II, Good was in high school in Nuremberg.

"We went to school, and at night we went to the air raid shelter," Good said. She said they had no activities or socializing because of the war. Hitler came through Nuremberg by train when he went to Italy to meet with Mussolini. She saw him on the train as he went by.

"We were young and impressionable and thought this was all wonderful," Good said. "The evil things didn't come through yet at that time." She described being on a train when it was attacked by American planes. She worked some during the war as a Red Cross nurse, which then was part of the military. When the Americans arrived, she became a prisoner of war.

Later, Good heard about a program to study the American school system and was sent to America to study English and the educational system. Roanoke was her third stop in America, and she encountered a "whole new world," which included segregation.

In Roanoke, she met Sam Good, a theater professor, as a blind date. She was invited by the American Association of University Women to be a guest at May Day. She told them she had no dress or date, but her hosts offered her both. "And that's how I met my husband," Good said. Eventually, both taught at Roanoke.

"As far as I was concerned, life began for me, finally." Good said. "My husband had gone through a similar experience here ... in the Depression. So we had a very similar childhood experience of not having anything. We were both very grateful of gradually working for everything we owned later on. We were not spoiled in other words."

Of Roanoke College, she talked about its small classes, strict rules and the close community. "I counted the presidents since the beginning of Roanoke College, since 1842, and there were 11 presidents to this day, and I knew seven of them," she said.

Read Good's full obituary online, where you can also leave notes for her family.