Street Smarts: Man who helped grow Tucson remembered with a street in his name

C. Edgar Goyette, known as “Ed,” was born to Charles and Jessie Goyette in 1892 in Des Moines, Iowa. His father worked in sales and moved his family from Iowa to Los Angeles sometime in the first decade of the 1900s. After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1911, Ed moved to Tucson, at a time when the population was about 13,000, to attend the University of Arizona. He was the first student body president in 1913.

After college Goyette worked as an automobile dealer and later in real estate. In 1930 he was elected board president of Tucson Organized Charities. He also was secretary of the local Emergency Relief Committee.

In 1933 he worked as executive secretary of the Pima County Social Security and Welfare Board. In 1940 he became executive secretary of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce, a job he held until 1960. Upon his retirement from the Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Daily Star wrote on May 5, 1960, “Much of Tucson’s growth has been due to Goyette’s work in bringing new industry and military installations to the area.”

In 1960 Goyette started work at the Pioneer Hotel in advertising and sales and was promoted to manager in 1966. He was named Tucson’s “Man of the Year” for 1958 by the Tucson Advertising Club for his support of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Gov. Paul Fannin proclaimed Ed Goyette Day on April 5, 1960. In 1968, he was the Grand Marshal of the Tucson Rodeo Parade.

Goyette served as president of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army for more than a decade, retiring in July 1974. He died in Tucson after a short illness on Nov. 8, 1974.

His wife, Cornelia, known as “Connie,” was born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1886 and married Ed in 1915. She recorded Goyette Avenue with Pima County as part of the Vista Del Monte Tract in 1928.

Charles Goyette jokingly remarked about his grandfather Ed: “He was totally devoted to Arizona and was pleased that Arizona chose his birthday, February 14, to become a state.”

Note: Orchard Avenue, one block west of Goyette, was recorded by Cornelia Goyette in 1930 and is believed to have been named after a small pear orchard or some type of fruit orchard that existed there.