Associate Justice Reuben Goodman
Reuben Goodman was born in Brockton on July 14, 1913. He graduated, cum laude, from Harvard College in 1935 and from Harvard Law School in 1938. He married Ruth Greenberg in 1944; the couple lived in Watertown for many years. From 1943 to 1946 he was chief counsel for the federal Office of Price Administration. In 1946 he served with the Department of Justice in Seoul, Korea, as an advisor to the Korean Ministry of Justice. From 1947 to 1950 he was stationed in Tokyo, Japan, with the Allied government forces to help reestablish a civilian government; he was cited for his work by the Japanese government. For the next fifteen years he practiced law in Boston, specializing in criminal defense work; he was co-counsel in the celebrated Brink's Robbery trial. He also served as general counsel for the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union; in that capacity he successfully defended the books Fanny Hill and Tropic of Cancer against obscenity charges. From 1966 to 1972 he was chief appellate counsel for the Massachusetts Defenders Committee (which later became the Committee for Public Counsel Services); during that time he argued and wrote briefs in 51 cases before the Supreme Judicial Court. In 1972 Governor Frank Sargent appointed him as one of the first six justices of the newly created Appeals Court. He served on the Court until his death on August 12, 1982. [The Appeals Court's Memorial to Justice Goodman may be found at 16 Mass. App. Ct. 1111 (1983).]