William Z. Good

1924 - 2020

April 27, 1924 - December 25, 2020 A remarkable man who survived the horrors of the holocaust to flourish in America, and a skilled physician whose devotion to his patients was matched by his enthusiastic friendliness and mischievous wit. He died of complications from COVID-19 at the age of 96.The elder son of Rabbi Dov Behr Gdud and Channah Kopelowicz, William was born as Wowa Zev Gdud in Sto?pce outside of Minsk, and grew up with his brother Motl in the pine forests of Nemencine, near Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). He had a happy childhood with a love of the outdoors, riding horses, kayaking in the Viliya river, and gathering mushrooms with his mother, while also studying Jewish scripture-his father bought him a bicycle as a reward for memorizing the first 40 chapters of the Book of Isaiah. Playing among children who spoke Yiddish, Polish, Russian, or Lithuanian, he learned many languages easily. He attended the Tarbut Hebrew High School in Vilna, where he became active in the local Zionist movement. During the Second World War, his family was engulfed by the holocaust that nearly exterminated the Jewish population of Europe. Aged 17, he was rounded up by soldiers and taken to the notorious Ponari killing ground-the bullet meant for his head missed and he escaped by hiding among the corpses and digging under a barbed-wire fence. His beloved mother Channah and brother Motl were captured by the police and murdered by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators along with 750 of Nemencine's Jews in September, 1941. For three years, William and his father hid in the forests, avoiding capture and helping to sabotage Nazi rail lines using wits, luck, and the aid of the few neighbors who risked their lives helping them survive. The Good family will always be grateful to the Paszkowski, Konsiewicz, and Gasperowicz, families for their bravery. After Vilna was liberated by the Red Army, William made a perilous journey out of Soviet-occupied Europe and smuggled himself into Italy, where his faith in humanity was restored by the warmth of the Italian people. His decision to become a physician was made during the war, and in Italy he had the opportunity to study medicine at the University of Torino. He met two medical students, Paul Geleris and Jack Brauns, and together they enlisted the help of the American Joint Distribution Committee to found the Casa Dello Studente a students' hostel for Jewish refugees. With the, support of the "Joint," fifty young holocaust survivors rebuilt their lives and formed a community of lifelong friends. One student at the Casa was a young Pearl Esterowicz, another holocaust survivor from Vilna, who came to Turino to earn her doctorate in chemistry. Their courtship began in Italy, and continued when they completed their studies and came to America in 1952, beneficiaries of the Displaced Persons bill. They married in New York's Upper West Side. Their son Leonard Good was born a year later in July, 1954. Dreaming of leaving New York for the golden California he'd seen in films, the young Dr. Good worked as a medical resident at St. Elizabeth's hospital in New Jersey, but took an additional obstetrics residency at Brooklyn's Cumberland Hospital, and even covered other residents' shifts, hoping to prepare for the rigors of frontier medicine in the American West. Upon arriving in Los Angeles in 1955, he was surprised to find himself in a modern, bustling metropolis. William and Pearl welcomed twins, Michael and Anne, in 1957, and built a house in the South Hills of West Covina in 1962. Dr. Good opened a practice in the blue-collar community of La Puente, where patients found a devoted physician who not only cared for their health, but took time to build relationships with them. He could by then speak 11 languages, which was helpful making connections in a largely-immigrant population. No matter what language you spoke, he had a witty joke or proverb ready to share with you. There was nothing that William Good enjoyed more than helping people in distress, and his career in medicine was the perfect vehicle to pursue this passion. Whether setting broken bones, performing surgeries, or counseling couples regarding marital problems, he and his nurses Shirley Aranda and Tommy Allen, and Receptionist Flo Segelken built a practice where patients stayed with him for decades. Even those who moved away from La Puente would travel long distances to continue seeing Dr. Good, saying they never found another doctor as friendly, kind, and thorough. When his patients couldn't afford to pay, he would see and treat them regardless, and would later say doing so was "paying my dues for becoming an American". Together, William and Pearl thrived in the opportunities they found in America, and would build a close community in the Los Angeles area, inviting their surviving parents and their friends from the student's home, Drs. Brauns and Geleris, to join them in Los Angeles. He still enjoyed the outdoors, skiing in the San Gabriel mountains, tending to his fruit trees, swimming in his backyard pool, and vacationing around the world with Pearl, their children, and grandchildren.He became a leader in the medical community, helping to found Queen of the Valley Hospital, and having a long and fruitful collaboration with the Catholic nuns who administered the hospital. After starting his career as a general practitioner, he resumed his studies and became one of the first board-certified family physicians in the United States in 1969. Unlike many Holocaust survivors, William spoke candidly of his experiences, both among friends and family, and as part of lectures and educational programs. He became more involved with Temple Ami Shalom in the last decade of his life, where the congregation enveloped him with love; enjoying his warmth, his Talmudic knowledge, and appreciating him as a living repository of Jewish traditions from the vanished world of pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe He retired from medical practice at the age of 89, and continued to live with Pearl in their West Covina home until the last year of his life when he and Pearl moved to the Silverado Sierra Vista assisted living community before succumbing to complications of COVID-19. The Good Family would like to thank staff for their devoted care during the last year of William's life. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Pearl Good; three children, Dr. Leonard Good (Deborah Chamberlain), Dr. Michael Good (Susan Possidente), and Dr. Hannah Good; six grandchildren, Benjamin Good (Mollie Goldfarb), Jesse Good, Fiona Good-Sirota, Amelia Good-Sirota, Jonathan Good, and Dr. Rebecca Good; and three great-grandchildren, Sophie Good, Emilie Good, and Theodore Good. Funeral services will be private, in lieu of flowers donations may be made to Temple Ami Shalom (templeamishalom.org) or The American Joint Distribution Committee (www.jdc.org)