Profile
A Dynasty in White Coats
Four generations. Pharmacy → Optometry → Medicine → Enterprise. The Goodman medical legacy.
Focus
Four generations of healthcare service
Pharmacists, Optometrists, Physicians, Executives
Two generations of Chiefs of Staff at Chandler Regional
Founders of MomDoc
The Thread That Binds
This is not just a family tree. It is a testament to aspiration climbing the credentialing ladder, generation by generation. Pharmacist to optometrist. Optometrist to physician. Physician to specialist. Specialist to executive. Each step upward required sacrifice — and in one case, tragedy.
The Goodman medical legacy is rare in American medicine: a father and son who each served as Chief of Staff at the same hospital, their combined tenure spanning over sixty years. [S35]
The Generational Ladder
| Generation | Name | Role | Legacy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | George Nicholas Goodman | Pharmacist & Civic Leader | Founded Goodman’s Pharmacy (1912); served as Mayor of Mesa during the territorial-to-statehood transition. |
| 1st | Clara Platt Goodman | Pharmacist | One of Arizona’s earliest female pharmacists; co-operated Goodman’s Pharmacy alongside her husband. |
| 2nd | Harold Richard Goodman, OD | Optometrist | Extended the family’s healthcare footprint into vision care. |
| 2nd | Dr. Clifford James Goodman Sr. | Family Practice Physician | Foundational physician at Chandler Community Hospital; its first Chief of Staff. |
| 3rd | Dr. Clifford James Goodman Jr. | OB/GYN & Founder | Founded MomDoc; later became Chief of Staff at Chandler Regional Medical Center — the same position his father held. |
| 4th | Nick Goodman | CEO | Continues the dynasty as chief executive of MomDoc, bridging clinical legacy into the digital age. |
The Founder: Clifford James Goodman Sr. (1921–1961)
A Wartime Education
Arizona had no medical school in the 1940s. For a young man from Mesa with ambitions beyond the pharmacy counter, that meant traveling east — to George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. [S35]
In the capital, Clifford Sr. met Leoma Earlene Ellsworth. They married, and on April 11, 1943, their first son was born — also named Clifford James Goodman. [S35] [S39]
Planting the Flag in Chandler (1951)
Dr. Goodman Sr. could have returned to Mesa, to his father’s pharmacy, to established networks. Instead, he chose Chandler — a small agricultural community separated from Phoenix by miles of cotton fields. [S35]
A “family practice” in 1951 meant everything. Pediatric vaccinations. Heart conditions. Broken bones. Delivering babies. Without the dense network of specialists available today, a general practitioner bore responsibility for the entire lifecycle of a patient. [S35]
The Hospital He Built
As Chandler grew — fueled by the post-war boom and the miracle of air conditioning — the need for a dedicated hospital became acute. Dr. Goodman Sr. was instrumental in founding Chandler Community Hospital, which opened July 17, 1961. He was named its first Chief of Staff. [S35]
Life Begins at Forty
Weeks before the hospital opened, the family threw a celebration: “Life Begins at Forty.” It was meant to mark a new chapter — the hospital, the legacy, decades of practice ahead.
Clifford Sr. died that same year, at age forty. The cruel irony is impossible to ignore. He left behind his wife Leoma and eight children. His eldest son, Clifford Jr., was eighteen years old. [S35]
The Widow’s Watch (1961–2022)
Leoma’s Sixty-Year Vigil
Leoma Earlene Ellsworth became a young widow with eight children to raise. The Ellsworth name, like Goodman, is prominent in Arizona LDS history — and Leoma proved equal to the legacy.
She survived her husband by over sixty years, living long enough to see her son become Chief of Staff at the hospital her husband had founded. She passed in May 2022 — just days before Clifford Jr. himself died. [S35]
A Son’s Sacrifice
Clifford Jr. had been salutatorian at Chandler High School (Class of 1960). He had earned an academic scholarship to the University of Chicago — a rare distinction for an Arizona teenager in that era.
His father’s death forced a recalibration. He transferred back to Arizona schools to be closer to home, to help his mother with seven younger siblings. The Chicago dream was set aside. Medicine would wait. [S35]
The Successor: Clifford James Goodman Jr. (1943–2022)
In His Father’s Footsteps
When Clifford Jr. finally began medical school, he chose deliberately: George Washington University School of Medicine — the same institution where his father had trained. It was not coincidence. It was homage. [S35]
He graduated in 1971, earning the Kane-King Obstetrical Society Award as the outstanding senior in OB/GYN. The specialty was not random — it would define his career and his company.
Return to Chandler (1976)
After serving in the Navy Medical Corps, Dr. Goodman Jr. returned to Chandler — to the very hospital where his father had been first Chief of Staff. [S35]
He would eventually rise to hold that same title: Chief of Staff at Chandler Regional Medical Center (the renamed and expanded descendant of Chandler Community Hospital). Father and son, holding the same position at the same institution, their tenures spanning over sixty years. [S35]
MomDoc
In 1976, the same year he returned, Clifford Jr. founded what would become MomDoc — now Arizona’s largest independent OB/GYN practice, with 21 offices across the state. [S10]
His son Nick Goodman serves as current CEO, carrying the family name into healthcare administration and the digital age.
What Does It Mean?
Four generations. Pharmacy to optometry to medicine to enterprise. Each generation climbed a rung higher — more specialized, more credentialed, more institutional.
But the thread that binds them is not ambition. It is duty. George Goodman served his community as pharmacist and mayor. Clifford Sr. died building a hospital. Clifford Jr. sacrificed a prestigious scholarship to care for his family. Nick now stewards the practice his father built.
The Goodman dynasty is not a story of wealth or fame. It is a story of showing up — in the pharmacy, in the hospital, in the delivery room — generation after generation.