Dr. Theodore Louis Goodfriend

Dr. Theodore Louis Goodfriend–physician, scientist, University of Wisconsin Medical School professor, community health advocate, beloved father, grandfather, and husband– died on August 10, 2026 at the age of 94. Born in Philadelphia on September 30, 1931, the first child of David and Theresa Goodfriend, “Ted” showed academic prowess at an early age. A star graduate of Central High School, Philadelphia’s oldest public high school, he achieved High Honors in the Division of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Swarthmore College, received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and earned the second highest score in the nation on his medical board exams. Dr. Goodfriend completed his internship at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, his residency at Washington University in St. Louis, served two years at the National Institutes of Health as a Second Lieutenant in the Public Health Service, and fulfilled a post-doctoral fellowship at Brandeis University.

Drawn by the lakes and pastures of Dane County, Dr. Goodfriend chose to start his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1965, where he became a full professor in the medical school. He won five teaching awards instructing students in pharmacology and internal medicine, with an emphasis on hypertension, and served briefly as the Associate Dean of the medical school. Dr. Goodfriend treated patients and served as Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the William S. Middleton Veterans Administration hospital, where he often said that “there is no greater honor than caring for a veteran.” Outside the medical school, Dr. Goodfriend became a fixture on Madison’s PBS affiliate, WHA-TV, answering questions posed by viewers, moderating panels of experts on medical issues, and contributing as a TV doctor-in-residence on episodes of Weekend. Dr. Goodfriend earned Emeritus status in 2002 and retired from the UW-Madison School of Medicine in 2013 after nearly half a century of service.

Publishing roughly 150 academic papers throughout his career, Dr. Goodfriend’s greatest scientific achievement was his identification of specific receptors that trigger high blood pressure, a discovery that led to the development of an entire class of pharmaceuticals to treat hypertension–so-called angiotensin receptor blockers (“ARBs,” such as losartan and valsartan) used by tens of millions of people worldwide to treat high blood pressure. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Heart Association in 2010 for his contributions to high blood pressure research.

Dr. Goodfriend’s community health advocacy brought critical healthcare services to some of the most underserved populations in Wisconsin. Recognizing the lack of basic healthcare services available to migrant farm workers, Dr. Goodfriend collaborated with his medical students to create the Migrant Farm Worker Clinic (a/k/a “La Clinica”) in 1968. They opened the clinic in a repurposed school bus parked in a Wautoma church parking lot. Dr. Goodfriend replicated the student-run clinic model in 1991, creating a clinic for homeless patients, “MEDiC,” in Madison’s Grace Episcopal Church. The UW School of Medicine and Public Health formally included MEDiC in its program in 2010. “La Clinica” and MEDiC eventually expanded into a network of community health providers across Wisconsin, currently serving thousands of people. Dr. Goodfriend received the 2016 national Jefferson/Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefitting Local Communities in recognition of his work providing health care services to underserved communities across Wisconsin.

Dr. Goodfriend loved boating on Madison's lakes and Wisconsin's many waterways, hiking, biking, and fishing throughout the state with his wife and sons. He loved classical music, enjoyed attending concerts by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and tuned into WERN-FM for hours at a time. He reveled in playing flute duets with his eldest son, David, on the platinum flute his orchestral musician grandfather, Adolph Hirschberg, bequeathed him.

Ted’s ribald sense of humor could reduce a room to tears, and his laugh –sounding like a cross between the bark of a hyena and the bray of a donkey– was so loud, it could make doorbell chimes resonate.

Ted’s curiosity, intellect, and open mind enabled his constant personal development, evolution, and growth until the day he died. He read widely, devouring tomes in days, and when aging and disease kept him in his chair, he escaped into volumes of American history, wanting to understand how the past could explain the present.

Dr. Goodfriend was preceded in death by his wife of 40 years, the love of his life, Mary Lou Birkett Goodfriend. He is survived by his sons, David (Susan Emmer) and Michael (Nancy Rodriguez), along with grandsons Benjamin, Ari, Noah, and Elijah. He also is survived by his sisters, Ruth Urbach and Juliet Goodfriend, and their children Dan and Josh Urbach, Micah and Erica Zimmerman.

A funeral service will take place at 11:00 am on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 at Temple Beth El, 2702 Arbor Dr., Madison, WI 53711. The burial will follow at Riverside Cemetery in Stoughton, WI.

Gifts in Dr. Goodfriend's memory may be made payable to “UW Foundation” with a note to direct as a tribute to the MEDiC Fund (132581558). Mail to UW Foundation, US Bank Lockbox, Box 78807, Milwaukee, WI 53278-8807. Gifts can also be made online at supportuw.org/giveto/medic.

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