Phillip Winton (Phil) Good passed away peacefully and with family present on May 27, 2024, at his home in Fallbrook, Calif. at the age of 85.
Phil was born on July 8, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Okla., to Howard Winton Good and Clara Inez (Arnett) Good, who predeceased him in 2008. The family moved first to Wichita, Kansas. and then to Gunnison, Colo. before arriving in Southern California shortly after World War II. The Goods ended up calling Laguna Beach home for over a decade, where Howard established himself as a custom home builder, and Inez ran the very successful “Good Real Estate” office in town. At the same time, Phil and his brother Mike surfed, played football and ran track.
Upon graduating from Laguna Beach High School in 1957, Phil relocated around Southern California while putting himself through college. After stints at Pasadena City College and Orange Coast College, Phil graduated with a criminology degree from Cal State, Long Beach. He later received his master’s in public administration from the University of Southern California.
In 1963, Phil enlisted in the California Army National Guard, serving at Fort Ord, Calif., Fort Lewis, Wash., and Camp San Luis Obispo, Calif. before being commissioned as an infantry officer in 1966. As a lieutenant, he served as a platoon leader in several units before assuming command of Co A, 3rd Bn 160th Infantry (Fullerton Armory), completing his service in 1970.
After graduating from college, Phil began working as a counselor at Orange County Juvenile Hall, where he met and, in 1968, married a young probation officer, Carol Jean Witkowski of San Diego. Thereafter, when asked how he met his wife, he would reply with a leer, “We met in jail.” The couple and their two children settled in Huntington Beach, where they lived for over 40 years, ending with Carol’s untimely passing in 2012.
Taking a break from youth counseling in the early 1970s, Phil partnered with his best friend and fellow Laguna Beach High School graduate Jerry Facinelli around their shared love of boating. Incorporating as GF Marine in Costa Mesa, Phil and Jerry built a series of popular Crown 18 sailboats over several years of production, one of which was prominently featured in the intro to the 1970s sitcom “Three’s Company.”
Returning to his primary vocation in the mid-1970s, Phil served for over 15 years as the Director of Project JADE (Juvenile Assistance Diversion Effort), a program that identified youth at risk for gang involvement and provided academic and vocational alternatives. JADE covered some of the most challenging communities in L.A. County, including South Gate, Bell Gardens, Compton, Industry, Cudahy and others.
Retiring early to help care for his developmentally disabled daughter, Phil poured himself into his lifelong loves of boating and junk collecting along the Los Alamitos, Huntington Harbour and Newport Harbor waterfronts, puttering around in his 1946-vintage 36’ powerboat “Good Grief II.” He remained tightly connected to the Laguna Beach community through his service as a reunion coordinator for the LBHS Class of 1957 (and others) and his oversight of a family LLC owned property in Laguna Canyon.
Phil is survived by his younger brother Kermit Michael (Mike) Good of Laguna Beach, son Charles Preston (Rusty) Good and daughter-in-law Cara Rosson Good of Chula Vista, daughter Kristin Meredith (Kristie) Good of Fallbrook, grandson Samuel Winton (Sam) Good and granddaughter Annie Jean Good, and many nieces, nephews and cousins from the Good, Arnett, Blazo and Seybold families.
Although Phil declined to participate in church, he accepted Christ shortly before his passing through the patient and loving efforts of his grandson Sam, bolstered by the prayers of many. In lieu of a funeral, his family will send him off Viking-style, clad in his traditional garb of gym shorts, ratty T-shirt and flip-flops, riding a flaming Dewey Dumpster slowly down the hill atop a mounded horde of his “treasures.”
