Daniel D. Godfrey
Hall of Fame Class of 2006
Daniel D. Godfrey began his distinguished career in adult and continuing higher education as an assistant county agricultural agent with North Carolina State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina A&T State University, a master’s degree in adult education and rural sociology from North Carolina State University and while working and as a cooperative extension service specialist and as a Teacher Assistant within the Department of Rural Sociology, he earned a doctorate from Cornell University.
Godfrey has several firsts in his career including being the first North Carolina extension administrator to have federal authority to coordinate and manage funds for CES across the state. He was employed as the first minority associate program director with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation where he had responsibility for coordinating management of 20 foundation-funded projects throughout the U.S. In addition, Godfrey was the first minority to serve as vice chair of the board of the division of agriculture for the National Association of State University and Land Grant Colleges. He led the drive for a $505 million budget allocation for the nationwide extension system in 1993. He also was the first 1890 dean and extension administrator to receive the American Distance Education Consortium Irving Award, the highest leadership honor bestowed by the organization.
Adult women needing formal and non-formal education and migrant workers in New York have benefited from Godfrey’s leadership. He has secured programming and financing for work force development programs to serve people in the rust belt and Appalachian region, brought better adult education and extension programs to multiple audiences, and has worked to improve school systems and establish museums.
He pioneered research and development required for institutions to have mobile units to deliver adult education programs using technology. North Carolina A&T State University recently honored him by naming their multi-purpose complex within Coltrane Hall, its campus-based adult education and extension facility, after him.
Internationally, Godfrey has served as a consultant to Niger, the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, and Uganda as well as assisted in the preparations for President Clinton’s 1998 visit to five African countries. While employed at the Kellogg Foundation, he visited the University of Zamorano in Honduras, as a consultant and staff assistant.
His single greatest contribution to the field of adult and continuing education is his highly visible life dedicated entirely to improving the life conditions of so many people, including disadvantaged and rural African Americans. Godfrey’s human and institutional networks, combined with his deep understanding of what was needed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, quickly mobilized efforts from ADEC to meet the needs of storm victims.