The Oliver Wight International legend, Walter Elmer Goddard (Walt), passed away on December 27th, 2024, at 10:30 A.M.
Walt was born December 9th, 1935, in Hopedale, MA, where he spent his early years. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the 1960s and went to work for Raybestos in Connecticut, which proved to be providential, as this is where he met Oliver Wight. Together, Walt and Ollie taught at the University of Bridgeport sharing the very “Modern Materials Management” techniques they were implementing at Raybestos. These courses cemented a belief in practitioner-led education.
Ollie asked Walt to help him establish the Oliver Wight Company, focusing on supply chain education and leading-edge practices in materials management, using computers in manufacturing planning. Together, they believed that if they were successful, they would “make life just a bit easier for planning professionals.” Their business relationship became a life-long friendship.
After Ollie passed away in 1983, Walt took the helm and grew the Oliver Wight Company into an international entity – Oliver Wight International has offices in New London, NH, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Walt’s legacy includes authoring Orchestrating Success: Improve Control of the Business with Sales & Operations Planning, Just-In-Time: Surviving by Breaking Tradition, and Oliver Wight’s renowned benchmark, The ABCD Checklist, recently published as The Seventh Edition Oliver Wight Class A Standard for Business Excellence.
Walt continued the vision he and Ollie established. He operated the company true to its roots, having practitioners with full knowledge of the Oliver Wight methodology continue to help companies drive to Class A performance levels while remaining a company infused with family values and sensibility.
Walt is predeceased by his cherished wife of 58 years, Ellie (Babiar) Goddard. He is survived by his daughter, Jean Goddard Foley, of Whitman, MA, and son, David Allen Goddard, of Newbury, NH and Oliver Wight Americas, Inc., and his grandchildren, Grace and Simon Goddard.