When Salt Lake City Councilman Tom Godfrey was attending Detroit's Sacred Heart Seminary with Salt Lake Mayor Palmer DePaulis, there was no hint they would move across the country and help run a city.
After all, they were in the seminary to become Catholic priests.Instead, they became politicians.And like all politicians, Godfrey must run for re-election to stay in the profession. The 42-year-old high school teacher is seeking a second four-year term in his east-central district.
Godfrey says he left the seminary and headed for college "because the lifestyle of being a priest wasn't for me." But, he adds, one of the basic lessons of the seminary - service to others - has stayed with him.
"Hey, I became a teacher. Some might say that's service with very little pay," he says with a smile.
It was teaching that brought him to Salt Lake in the first place. A mutual friend of Godfrey's and DePaulis' moved to Salt Lake in the mid-1970s and Godfrey offered to drive the man's second car from Detroit. "I got here and was told that the Jordan School District was hiring anyone they could get their hands on, and they were laying teachers off in Detroit."
He convinced his wife, Maggie, that Salt Lake was the promised land for teachers and they moved. Godfrey now teaches English and French at Hillcrest High School. Maggie is a social worker.
Almost upon his arrival, Godfrey was involved in the community. He moved into the Central City area where the DePaulises lived. Godfrey still resides at 1233 S. 700 East. "Palmer was active in the area and got me interested in Neighborhood Housing Services."
When Alice Shearer, a member of the original 1979 council, decided to resign her seat to take a job with Gov. Norm Bangerter's administration, Godfrey read about the opening in the newspaper. He applied and was picked by the council to replace Shearer. That was February 1985. Godfrey ran and won a full four-year term to the council in November 1985.
"I`m most proud of the work I did on helping restore this wonderful City-County Building, the housing issues I've supported and advanced and the work with the homeless," Godfrey says.
He regrets the bitter disagreements that have sprung up on the council. "It's become a personal thing, and that's too bad. Discussion (between the four members who often vote as a bloc and the three other members) has basically stopped."