PAUL FOX GODDARD
Stevensville, MT – Paul was born in Ogden, Utah on September 24th, 1942. His father was also named Paul and so he was known all his life by his family as FOX, which was also his mother’s maiden name. FOX Ranch is still active and the name of his grandparents’ large cattle ranch in LaBarge, Wyoming at the head of the Green River and where Fox spent many of his summers as a child.
Snow Basin Ski Area was in his backyard in Ogden where he learned to ski with his whole family, and where he rode the family horse after school.
He attended Ogden High School and then the University of Utah. During that time he downhill ski raced for his schools and for the USA ski team.
He married Michel (Bradley) Goddard in Salt Lake in 1964. They had three children named Brooks Fox Goddard, Holly Ann Goodard and Regan Ann Goddard. They moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming when the children were young. That is where he learned how to build homes and where he built his first home for his family.
He continued on to form his own construction company in Jackson Hole, GODDARD CONSTRUCTION, and where he built over 600 homes there over a 40 year period. He also built several Mormon churches in Alaska and a large home up Skalkaho Highway in Montana during this time In 1994 he married Elizabeth (Hansen) Goddard. They celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary on May 28th, 2022. Liz brought her young son, Barry John Kotek, to the marriage and Fox helped raise him and be a father to him until the end of his life.
Fox retired from building and then designed a winter home in Hurricane, Utah, and had it built. For many years Fox and Liz spent the winters in Utah and the summers in Jackson where Fox had an inholding in Grand Teton National Park at the north end and where he had built a log home, a bunkhouse, and a large garage. In southern Utah Fox-learned to be a master silversmith and became a guide for the ATV Tri-State Jamboree. Life was good.
In 2015 Fox and Liz sold both homes and found a new home in Stevensville, MT where they have lived ever since. Fox enjoyed working on their 32-acre horse property with their horses and dogs even as Fox began to decline from Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.
Paul Fox Goddard died at St. Patrick’s Hospital on Monday, June 20th, 2022.
Fox was a cowboy….
He also was a ski racer, an avid ATV rider, and guide, a boat owner on Jackson Lake in Wyoming, a snowmobiler, a master carpenter and builder, an architect of some of the homes he built, an owner of his own construction company in Jackson, WY, a leather craftsman, a log furniture builder, an amateur car racer in his youth, a hunter, a fisherman, and a fixer of just about everything broken.
He was a friend to everyone he met. He loved openly and deeply. He loved his family with his whole heart. He enjoyed talking and sharing stories with everyone he met.
He was a man of integrity and honesty and he was respected by everyone who knew him. He was incredibly generous and caring towards others.
He loved animals and had many from the beginning of his life to the end. He supported churches we attended in his life as he could. He believed in God and in truth and in goodness and in mercy and he tried to live those values.
He was a cowboy……
Fox touched many lives and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
He is survived by his wife, Liz Goddard, his stepson Barry Kotek, his daughter Holly Goddard Emerson, his daughter Regan Goddard Taylor, his brother Major General Rick Goddard, his sister Peggy Goddard Puckett, 9 grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren, and his beloved dogs Blue and Maggie and Ashley. A celebration of Fox’s life will be held on Friday, July 1, 2022, at 2:00 P.M. at the Florence Carlton Community Church in Florence, MT. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at www.whitesittfuneralhome.com.