Goddard Hall
If you are on the New Mexico State University campus after dark and hear an unfamiliar noise, it may be the ghost of the namesake of Goddard Hall, former Engineering Dean Ralph Willis Goddard. The building sits on the main horseshoe of New Mexico State University and is rumored to be haunted with the ghost of Goddard, who died in the basement.
In the early twentieth century, Trost and Trost had the hall built in the Spanish Renaissance style, crowned with a picturesque bell tower. Due in large part to funding provided by Roosevelt’s New Deal, an annex around the building was designed by New Mexico State University faculty and built by the students in 1936-37. Today Goddard Hall contains the College of Engineering and the Kiplish School of Electrical Engineering.
Ralph Willis Goddard, born April 20, 1887, in Waltham, Massachusetts, moved to New Mexico in 1914 to begin a job as an electrical engineering professor at what was then called New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. He began KOB, the first area radio station in the region, in 1922. It was housed in Goddard Hall, with antennas on the bell tower. Goddard was known as a pioneer in radio engineering, and he received national acclaim for his work. During World War I, he trained soldiers in radio transmission, which was instrumental in trench warfare
On New Year’s Eve 1929, Goddard was on campus working on “something special” for the holiday program. He was electrocuted while working on generators in the transmission room of KOB. The electrocution was so intense that it burned an imprint of his foot in the cement of the floor.
A year later it was suggested that a dormitory be named after Goddard. One alumnus, Rock Davis, wrote to college President Kent: “I just want to come back someday and hear an active Aggie say, ‘That is Goddard Hall.’” Kent felt that the engineering building was more appropriate, Goddard Hall was dedicated in 1934.
In 2000 Goddard Hall and its annex underwent renovation. Due to historic preservation laws, the exterior walls and many windows remained. The interior of the building was completely gutted and redone, with completion in May 2001.
Research by Julie Wojtko, New Mexico State University.
