Gail Helen Goedert

Goedert was born in Thunder Bay, Canada, in November 1939. Her family moved to Covina, California, when she was in her teens. At different times in her adult life, she lived in Vancouver, Kelso and Tacoma, Washington, as well as Beaverton, Oregon. She loved animals and volunteered for a time at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and the Kitsap Humane Society. Goedert and her husband were married in 1978 and they volunteered together doing paleontological fieldwork in western Washington and Oregon for various museums. One result was her discovery of a new genus and species of fossil sea lion, Pteronarctos goedertae, named in her honor. She discovered other fossils new to science and several other animal species have been named in joint honor of her and her husband’s efforts. The fossils she collected are in museums in Los Angeles, Seattle and Charleston, as well as Melbourne, Sapporo and Frankfurt, where they will be studied for many years to come. Goedert enjoyed flowers and traveling, and with her husband had been to Europe, Asia and the South Pacific (including Easter Island) several times. Goedert is greatly missed by her husband, Jim, of Wauna, her sister Kathy Barbee, of Covina, her daughter Kim Gould, of Lakewood, Colorado, granddaughter Tara Goushas, of Washington, D.C., and grandson Eric Nordlander, of Denver. As she requested, there will be no services.