A long and distinguished career, first in public service for the federal government, and then as a 5-term Democratic state representative from Storrs and Mansfield .

Granddaughter of the man for whom Goodwin Park is named and daughter of the man who wrote the legislation establishing the Metropolitan District Commission, Dorothy Goodwin was born and raised in Hartford . She attended Oxford school and Milton Academy in Milton , Massachusetts . She then went on to Smith College where she graduated magna cum laude. She joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an intern in 1937. She was later hired by the Interior Department and sent to India during World War II.

After the war, she joined the U.S. Foreign Agriculture Organization and was sent to Japan . She returned to Hartford in 1952. Three years later, she received a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut , where she taught economics until 1965. She then became Director of Institutional Research, retiring in 1974. In 1975, Dorothy was elected to the House of Representatives from the 54th District. As chair of the House's Education Committee and then as a member of the State Board of Education, she has shown her dedication to state education. This also earned Dorothy her greatest recognition as a lawmaker. She crafted the compromise leading to the reorganization of higher education and, in 1979, shepherded the school equalization formula through the House.

Her legacy to the education of Connecticut is exemplified by her appointment in 1982 as the co-chair of the General Assembly's Education Commission. Currently, Dorothy is serving on the Board of Trustees of Hartford College for Women and on the University of Hartford's Board of Regents. She has received numerous honors, including The Connecticut Humanities Council's 1991 Wilbur Cross Award in recognition of a career which combined distinguished scholarship and teaching with public service.