Christopher Goodrich, 65, activist

Christopher Goodrich, 65, of Tinicum, an advertising agency owner and activist for the arts and other causes, died of heart failure Dec. 1 while deer hunting in the woods near his home.

A native of Surrey, England, Mr. Goodrich moved to Australia in the late 1970s and worked in Melbourne and Adelaide for Ogilvy & Mather, an international advertising agency.

He later was with the agency in Dallas and New York City before joining Earle Palmer Brown Advertising in Philadelphia in 1987. He started his own firm, Goodrich Advertising, in Philadelphia in 1993.

Mr. Goodrich was long a community activist, he initiated an Earth fair in Adelaide to bring attention to the nascent green movement. While working in New York, he volunteered at a homeless center.

In the 1980s and '90s, when he lived in Center City, he was a volunteer for Manna, delivering meals to people with life-threatening illnesses.

Mr. Goodrich was chairman of the board of International House, and served on the boards of numerous other organizations, including the Global Interdependence Center, Philadelphia Boys Choir, Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Morris Arboreteum, Rock School for Dance Education, and the Pennsylvania Ballet, for which he was interim director in 1995.

Mr. Goodrich and his wife, Susan, met at a Philadelphia Advertising Club dinner and married in 1988. They lived for 10 years in Tinicum, where he grew vegetables and tended their six-acre property, his wife said.

Mr. Goodrich also enjoyed the theater, opera, dance and travel. He had a zest for life and loved helping people, his wife said, and believed in Henry David Thoreau's philosophy, "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find eternity in each moment."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Goodrich is survived by daughters Amy Henderson and Georgina Goodrich; stepdaughter Hilary Weiss; three brothers; a sister; three grandchildren; and his former wife, Jennifer Abbey.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Widener Center, Morris Arboretum, 100 Northwestern Ave.