Goodman 0W9 Receives C.W. Schrenk 4W9 Young Alumnus Award

Chris Goodman 0W9, founder and owner of C. Goodman Construction and Renovation Co., a general contracting company, in Media, PA, received the board of trustee’s C.W. Schrenk 4W9 Young Alumnus Award at the Founder’s Day celebration in the Clara Schrenk Memorial Chapel on Feb. 3.

The Young Alumnus Award is presented to an alumnus who graduated within the last 15 years and who has distinguished himself by making substantial contributions to his profession and to society at an early stage in his life.

While a freshman carpentry student at Williamson, out of a desire to use his skills to help others, he went on the school’s mission trip to Mississippi to rebuild homes devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Finding the experience very rewarding, his junior year he returned to Mississippi and next spent two weeks in Uganda, Africa, building a school for orphans, a trip he repeated his senior year.

Since graduating, he has gone on every Williamson mission trip and some on his own. He does at least one trip a year and sometimes two. The most he has gone on in one year is four and altogether he has gone on about 25.

Among his Williamson trips are many visits to Paraiso, Dominican Republic, to help build a hospital; Puerto Rico, to reframe a roof for a house damaged by a hurricane and helping a poor man rebuild his house in the mountains; Lima, Peru, where he helped build a community center; several trips to El Salvador to build a school; and Houston, to tile a house that was damaged by a flood caused by Hurricane Harvey. After going to El Salvador with Williamson, he went back on his own with his wife, Melissa.

At the age of 13 he realized he wanted to become a carpenter after working as a carpenter. Growing up in Havertown, he attended a special evening program at Haverford High School that allowed him to attend classes in the evening, freeing up his days to work in carpentry. He decided to further his knowledge of carpentry at Williamson. After not getting in his first attempt, he spent a year working in carpentry, and was accepted into Williamson’s carpentry program in his second attempt.

After graduating, he was the George Dorm manager before founding his business.