Nancy Lee Hanawi Goodman

Nancy Lee Hanawi Goodman
June 3, 1933 - January 10, 2017
Pacific Grove, CA
Nancy Hannye was born and grew up in Wilkes-Barre, PA and graduated from Wilkes College in 1954, magna cum laude in mathematics. She received an all-but-thesis Ph.D. in probability theory and statistics from Cornell University in 1958 and taught math at Cornell, Ithaca College and Michigan State University. Professionally known as Nancy Tapper, she became a professor at State University of New York (SUNY) Empire State College where she founded and served as Dean of the Bedford Stuyvesant learning center in Brooklyn. She met and later married Professor Oscar Goodman, Ph.D.
In 1974, Nancy Tapper became the first President of the Peralta College for Non-Traditional Study in Berkeley, CA, later named Vista and currently called Berkeley City College. She founded and was president of a non-profit organization in 1978 -- The Center for Social Redesign, in Oakland, California. Oscar Goodman served as co-president until they retired in 2010. Their work focused on mediation, dispute resolution, and consultation with non-profit community and educational organizations.
Nancy and Oscar undertook a demonstration project working to resolve conflicts within nursing homes and a project to resolve patient complaints about hospitals and physicians and she co-authored two peer-reviewed publications in 2001. Working as a team, Nancy and Oscar were dedicated to peace studies and taught many courses and mentored students at the University of California Berkeley, Sonoma State University, and other campuses and they were active in peace and justice movements.
Nancy was passionate about women's rights issues. In 1995, she formed a long-standing women's learning group in the Bay Area and wrote and published a book entitled Women Learning Together: A Handbook for Creating Adult Learning Communities.
Because Nancy was proud of her heritage from her Lebanese father and an Irish mother, she adopted the original spelling of her family name Hanawi. She and Oscar lost their home in Montclair in the Oakland Hills fire of 1991, but they purchased another home in Montclair and had a second home in Pacific Grove.
She was preceded in death by her husband Oscar Goodman and her brother George Hannye. She is survived by her brother Dick Hannye of Princeton Junction, NJ, and several nieces and nephews and their spouses: Tina Darwin of Indianapolis, IN, Mark Hannye of Astana, Kazakhstan, Lynn Hannye of Waianae, HI, Richard and Stacy Hannye of Bensalem, PA, and Marie Hannye-Scurato and Roland Scurato of Princeton Junction, NJ.


View the online memorial for Nancy Lee Hanawi Goodman