O-I exec had Spitzer Building role

1/3/2004

Lyman Spitzer Goodbody, 95, a retired Owens-Illinois, Inc., manager whose family has been prominent in Toledo area social and philanthropic matters for more than a century, died Sunday in the care center at Vicar s Landing, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

He was in ill health recently, his stepson Duncan Thomas said.

Mr. Goodbody, formerly of Perrysburg Township, was born in Evanston, Ill., to Thomas Pim and Luette Spitzer Goodbody. His father was a securities broker and a former executive and director of the Toledo Scale Co. His mother, a well-known club woman, was the daughter of A.L. Spitzer, a local banker, financier, and a leading figure in real estate who moved to Toledo in 1883 and built the Spitzer Building downtown in 1896.

Mr. Goodbody retired in 1993 as president of the Spitzer Building, said his cousin John Spitzer, a lawyer and the current president.

Mr. Goodbody was a graduate of the Kent School, a boarding school in Kent, Conn., and a 1931 graduate of Yale University. He rowed on the crew teams of both schools.

He became a salesman in 1932 for the then-Owens-Illinois Glass Co. at the firm s Alton, Ill., facility. Mr. Goodbody was an Army artillery instructor at Fort Sill, Okla., during World War II. Afterward, in Toledo, he became product manager in wine and spirits for the O-I glass container division, responsible for sales to vintners and distillers. He retired in 1972.

“His main job was keeping the liquor customers happy, which obviously was a matter of major importance to Owens-Illinois,” Mr. Spitzer said.

Mr. Goodbody traveled frequently to distilleries headquarters, mostly in New York City or Kentucky.

“He was known to be very articulate and very good at his job,” said Jack Paquette, who retired in 1984 as an O-I vice president and assistant to the chairman. “He was such a gentleman in his approach to customers. He made a big hit in the industry, which was a gentleman s industry.”

Mr. Goodbody s stepson added: “He always had a story to tell or something to connect people together. He was a great sales guy, a wonderful host at sales meetings and dinners. He loved to make people feel welcome.”

Mr. Goodbody was president of the Toledo Country Club on three occasions, his stepson said, and was an early member of Belmont Country Club. He hunted, shot skeet, and played cards with fellow members of the Answer Club and sampled fine food and fine wine as a member of Chevaliers du Tastevin, or cavaliers of wine tasting.

Golf was a major interest, Mr. Spitzer said, and he played in England - where he attended Goodbody family meetings - and Scotland, and “everyplace he traveled,” Mr. Spitzer said. “And he traveled rather widely.”

He married Doreen Tittle Thomas in 1955. She died Aug. 8, 1970. Mr. Spitzer formerly was married to Virginia Van Siclen and Barboura Swift Koles. The marriages ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth, whom he married in November, 1986; stepson, Duncan Thomas; sister, Luette Semmes; three step-grandsons, and a step-great-granddaughter.

Arrangements in Florida are pending, his stepson said. Memorial services will be held later at St. Michael s in the Hills Church, Ottawa Hills.

The family suggests tributes to the rowing programs of Kent School or Yale University or to a charity of the donor s choice.