Melvin R. (Mel) Goodes, the former CEO of Warner-Lambert who spearheaded the development of landmark cardiac and neuroscience therapies, passed away on September 30, 2024, from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. His life is celebrated by a loving wife, Nancy, three children, David, Melanie and Michelle, eight grandchildren, and a wide circle of friends and family members to whom he was both generous and fiercely loyal. Mel lived with his Alzheimer’s disease for 15 years and became a forceful champion for expanding Alzheimer’s research.
From Canada to the World. Mel was born in 1935 to Cedric and Mary Melba Goodes. He was raised in Hamilton, the steel center of Canada and a town devastated by the Depression. Mel’s parents sacrificed greatly so he could complete his education. He became the first in his extended family to finish high school, attending Westdale High School in Hamilton, where he was a star athlete, nicknamed “Sugarfoot” for his prowess in basketball. He went on to graduate in 1957 from Queen’s University in Kingston. Selected as a Ford Fellow, he earned his MBA in 1960 from the University of Chicago.
Mel was recruited to join Warner-Lambert Canada in 1965. Warner-Lambert was then a consumer products company whose brands included Listerine, Trident and Rolaids. Mel quickly emerged as a high-potential leader, with a special talent for international operations. Mel’s three children were born in three different nations and his leadership roles covered five continents. In the mid-1970s, Mel came to Warner-Lambert’s headquarters in Morris Plains, NJ, where he led Asian operations and then the Consumer Division. He became the company’s Chief Operating Officer in 1985 and Chairman and CEO in 1991.
Mel’s immediate priority as CEO concerned the company’s drug division, Parke-Davis, whose research pipeline had run dry. One analyst described Warner-Lambert as among the “walking dead” of the pharmaceuticals industry, a label Mel vowed to defy.
Reviving Warner-Lambert centered on overhauling a stuffy corporate culture. Mel personally modeled his vision of an open, fast-moving, team-centered organization, embracing the company’s 44,000 employees as colleagues. While many other companies were downsizing, Mel fostered innovation and growth, noting that “No company ever cut their way to greatness.” He kept his promise to share the rewards of success. Warner-Lambert became one of the first major corporations to extend stock options to nearly all its employees.
In the early 1990s, Mel took a leap of faith and authorized a substantialand expensiveclinical trial for a lipid-lowering drug candidate that some other prominent Warner-Lambert leaders wanted to abandon. The trials were a success and led to the launch of atorvastatin (trade-named Lipitor), which ultimately became the best-selling prescription medicine in history. The widespread uptake of Lipitor has been a catalyst in saving or improving the lives of millions of people at serious risk of heart disease.
In 1999, with his company firmly in the Fortune 100, Mel decided to retire. A year later, Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert for more than $100 billion, about ten times the value of the company in 1991, when Mel became CEO.
Family First. Mel had a global vision but his heart was always at home. Despite a travel schedule that could take him to five nations during the workweek, Mel was described as “ready and raring to go” on Saturday mornings, whether that meant playing on the floor with his children and grandchildren or cheering them on from the sidelines. As his children became older, Mel became their mentor, ready to discuss whatever was on their minds, often over a cold beer. His grandchildren affectionately called him “Big Daddy”and he doted on each of them.
Mel brought an infectious enthusiasm to every dimension of his life. He was an avid golfer and a good one. Mel cheered his beloved Yankees and was a fixture at Devils games. He loved to laugh and tell jokes, often at his own expense. And his devotion to music often led to spontaneous singing, usually Frank Sinatra, and often at the top of his lungs.
Most importantly, Mel tried to instill in his family and others the values that meant the most to him: honesty, integrity, humility, compassion, and relentless optimismeven joywhen it came to solving problems.
A Stunning Diagnosis and a New Mission. Following Mel’s retirement, he and Nancy settled in Vero Beach, building their lives together and sharing a commitment to philanthropy. One cause close to Mel’s heart was his alma mater, Queen’s University. Among other donations, including scholarships to Queen’s University for graduates of Westdale High School, Mel and Nancy provided much-needed funds to expand and modernize the business school. Queen’s University wanted to name the new facility after Mel. He had it named after his parents, in gratitude for their sacrifice.
In 2009, Mel was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Shaken but unbowed, Mel and Nancy began working with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), established by Leonard and Ronald Lauder as a new approach to speed the flow of dementia therapies.
A turning point came in 2010, when Mel made a landmark speech to a packed ADDF event, revealing his diagnosis. He told the spellbound audience that he did not expect biomedical research to ride to his rescue. Whatever his fate, Mel said, he and Nancy would dedicate themselves to changing the course of the Alzheimer’s epidemic.
In 2015, Mel and Nancy, in conjunction with ADDF, announced the Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Drug Development, to be awarded yearly to an outstanding Alzheimer’s researcher. Now in its tenth year, the Goodes Prize has emerged as one of the world’s most prominent awards in applied neuroscience.
Mel and Nancy moved to Palm Beach in 2015. Every day, for 15 years, he kept his promise to fight valiantly against this disease, until the inevitable end.
Mel’s legacy will be carried on by his immediate family, including his wife Nancy, whom he married in 1998; a brother, Rod Goodes (Kathy); three children: Melanie Caceres (Lou), Michelle MacDonald, and David Goodes (Bethany); eight grandchildren: Brittany Strang (Kyle), Kailey and Ashley Caceres, Lauren and Katelyn MacDonald, and John, Andrew and Rebecca Goodes, as well as a niece, Nancy Ritchie, and a nephew, Rod Goodes, Jr.
Mel was predeceased by his parents, Cedric and Mary Melba Goodes, and his first wife, Arlene Goodes.
A memorial service will be announced in the near future.
The Goodes Family requests that donations in Mel’s honor be directed to The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, 57 West 57th Street, Suite 904, New York, NY 10019. (www.alzdiscovery.org).
Posted online on October 04, 2024
Published in The Palm Beach Post
