Richard Urquhart Goode was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 geographer

Geographer

A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...

. He was born in Bedford, Virginia

Bedford, Virginia

Bedford is an independent city located within the confines of Bedford County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It serves as the county seat of Bedford County. As of 2010, the city had a total population of 6,222. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Bedford with surrounding Bedford...

. He attended the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1878. In 1879, he became a topographer with the newly created U.S. Geological Survey where he worked until his death.

From 1882-1884, Goode was attached to the Northern Transcontinental Railroad Survey

First Transcontinental Railroad

The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...

 as an engineer and topographer. In 1889, he was appointed a geographer with the Survey and was placed in charge of surveys of the Pacific Coast States - California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, and Washington.

Good was a member of the Washington Academy of Sciences and during 1901-1903, he was the chairman of the Committee on Technical Meetings at the National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

.

Honors

• Goode Mountain, the highest peak in North Cascades National Park and Chelan County, Washington is named after Mr. Goode

Publications

• "The geography and geology of Alaska : a summary of existing knowledge" with Alfred Hulse Brooks and Cleveland Abbe. US Geological Survey Professional Paper No. 45, 1906.
• The Idaho-Montana Boundary Line National Geographic Magazine. January, 1900, Vol. 11, No. 1. pages 23–28.
• Results of primary triangulation and primary traverse, fiscal year 1901-2 US Geological Survey Bulletin No. 201, 1902
• Results of spirit-leveling, fiscal year 1900-1901 US Geological Survey Bulletin No. 185, 1901
• Survey of the boundary line between Idaho and Montana, from the international boundary to the crest of the Bitterroot Mountains US Geological Survey Bulletin No. 170, 1900
• Magnetic declination (1899)
• West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey: Reports (1899)