Martin Goodfriend; Civic Leader, Philanthropist

Martin Goodfriend, a teen-age Polish immigrant who became a successful Santa Monica jeweler and city councilman and campaigned to better the lives of the Grand Canyon’s Havasupai Indians, has died. He was 88.

Goodfriend died Nov. 16 in Pleasant Hill, Calif., where he had lived for 12 years.

Arriving in New York in 1920, the 15-year-old Goodfriend joined relatives in Duluth, Minn. He came to Santa Monica after his marriage in 1930 and founded Goodfriend’s Jewelers.

A Santa Monica civic leader for half a century, Goodfriend helped to write the City Charter in 1945, served as a city councilman and was appointed to the Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency. He reared three children, worked on the area Boy Scout Council, and was successful enough in the jewelry business to be able to retire at 50. He indulged himself in photography and hiking trips, climbing Mt. Whitney at age 60 and doing it faster at age 63.

“For me, the American dream came true,” he told The Times in 1971. “Work hard. Obey the law. Live by the Golden Rule. Here, it was all possible. The nice home. The family. The opportunity for my children.”

But Goodfriend found his real life’s challenge in the bottom of the Grand Canyon during a photography trip in 1955. The Havasupais, he discovered, had not enjoyed the same American dream he had.

“My fellow human beings and my fellow Americans were being deprived of the very rights and privileges that changed my own life,” he told The Times years later. “There was probably no other Indian reservation, no Appalachian backwater, no slum or skid row anywhere in this nation so lacking as Supai in elementary public services that were provided for 99 percent of us.”

During the next 15 years, Goodfriend hiked in and out of the canyon 30 times, studied Supai history and took a personal census of the population and its problems. Often derided as “Marty Do-Gooder,” he wrote letters, made speeches, and visited federal officials until he improved the Havasupais’ lot. He won a safe water system, new outhouses, housing construction, a full-time medical aide, better telephones and an elementary school.

He also raised donations in Santa Monica and obtained federal matching funds to establish a Supai Community Center in the Grand Canyon with a library, recreation hall and community action office.

“Mr. Goodfriend is a sharp, constant thorn in my side,” Howard Stricklin, superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park during Goodfriend’s campaign, once told The Times. “Thank God for Mr. Goodfriend.”

Goodfriend is survived by his children, Lawrence of Nevada City, Rachelle of San Francisco, and Rosalie Hankin of Pleasant Hill, and several grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Elementary School Board, in care of Wayne Sinyella, Box 24, Havasupai Tribe, Supai, Ariz. 86435, or the Hospice of Contra Costa County.