Keeping things well preserved

Jimmy Stroup

As a long-time volunteer for the Costa Mesa Historical Society, Mary

Ellen Goddard has become one of the foremost experts on Newport-Mesa

history ever to come out of ... Iowa.

After moving to Costa Mesa in 1977, armed with a degree in history

and a fondness for finding and caring for historical pieces, Goddard

volunteered for the historical society in her spare time, while her

children were in school.

“The reason I volunteer, or started to volunteer in the first

place, is because I have an interest in local history,” she said.

Twenty-four years later and recently retired from an archivist

position at UC Irvine, Goddard is still lending her time to the

historical society.

As the resident archivist at CMHS, Goddard has placed numerous

local historical documents and thousands of photographs in

preservation. Though her interest isn’t limited to local history, she

does admit that finding new and exciting things in the realm of

national history is rather difficult.

“If you’re interested in old documents and discovering old

documents and old things, you’re more likely to run into these things

on the local level,” she said.

Along with her other duties, Goddard has helped create and man the

Historical Society’s booth at the Orange County Fair for more than 20

years. Her main function at the society is compiling and taking care

of old documents and paperwork, a task that requires patience,

tenacity and dedication, among other things.

“It requires volunteers,” Goddard said. “It requires not only

volunteers, but it requires volunteers who are willing to come and

really spend the time.”

As if her efforts at the historical society weren’t enough for any

one person, Goddard donates time to the Friends of the Costa Mesa

Library program and has also been working with a group of people who

would like to see a new library built in Costa Mesa.

Though a location for that idea has not been decided, Goddard

would like to see a “great big one” built where Kona Lanes once was

on Harbor Boulevard, compete with a large meeting room, lots of

plants and solar panels to make the building energy- and

cost-efficient.

All the extra time and energy fits into Goddard’s philosophy on

volunteering, which she views as an extension of caring about where

you live.

“Volunteering is not just something spontaneous,” she said, adding

that dedication and planning are as much a part of what you donate as

the time you give.