Dan Goddard

Dan Goddard was born on 3 November 1947. He later said that as a boy he dreamed of becoming a United States Air Force pilot, and he fulfilled that ambition. His Air Force career lasted 24 years, and he retired with the rank of colonel. Details of his upbringing and early family life have not been widely published.

After retiring from the Air Force, Goddard devoted around two decades to redeveloping closed military bases. He served as executive director of the Grissom Redevelopment Authority in Indiana from 1994 to 2005; a Kansas official said at the time that he had done so well there that he had worked himself out of a job. In April 2006, while living in Denver, Indiana, he was hired as executive director of the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant Local Redevelopment Planning Authority in Parsons, and he went on to lead its successor body, the Great Plains Development Authority.

In 2016 he was elected to the Kansas Senate for the 15th district, taking office in January 2017. In 2020 he lost his bid for re-election to fellow Republican Virgil Peck of Havana by 18 votes. Two years later, when longtime Representative Richard Proehl retired, Goddard was elected unopposed to House District 7, covering parts of Labette and Neosho counties, and took his seat on 9 January 2023. He was re-elected in 2024 and served on the House Judiciary, Transportation, and Veterans and Military committees. He did not file for re-election in 2026.

Goddard lived in Parsons, in Labette County, and was married to Robin. A retired Air Force colonel, he spoke at local veterans events, telling a Wreaths Across America ceremony in Parsons in December 2024 that the military oath to defend the Constitution "does not have an expiration date on it".

Dan Goddard died on the night of Thursday 29 October 2026, aged 78, while still serving as the representative for Kansas House District 7. House Speaker Dan Hawkins notified lawmakers of his death that day, and the Sunflower State Journal reported it on 30 October. No cause of death or funeral arrangements had been made public at the time of the first reports.

Goddard is remembered in southeast Kansas for his work turning the closed Kansas Army Ammunition Plant toward new uses and for a decade in the Legislature. In his farewell remarks he urged colleagues to slow down and seek harmony, and spoke warmly of friendships across party lines.