Abe McGregor Goff was born in Colfax, Washington, December 21, 1899, the fourth son of Herbert W. and Mary Francis (Dorsey) Goff. In addition to his three brothers he had one younger sister. He left high school from September 1917 to February 1918 to serve as a private in the Washington State National Guard during World War I. He returned to school and graduated in 1918. While at Colfax High School he was on both the track and football teams.
Working his way through the University of Idaho he held such jobs as day laborer in a lumber mill, construction worker, plumbers helper, dish washer, and was also sexton at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. He also found time to participate in dramatics, where he appeared in many plays including the part of the Indian Chief in "The Light on the Mountain", in football where his exploits earned him one of the first spots in the University of Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame, and in campus politics where he was elected president of the Freshman Class for the third quarter, and in April 1923 ran for president of the ASUI, but was defeated by Talbot Jennings. He was also active in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Goff was a cadet colonel in the university ROTC regiment and was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the infantry reserve in February 1923. In 1933 he transferred to the Judge Advocate General's Department as a Captain, and when called to active duty had risen to Major.
After graduating from the University of Idaho Law School in 1924 he was admitted to the Idaho Bar and joined the law office of C.J. Orland. His first case, which he lost, was defending a West Virginian accused of making moonshine. In addition to his law practice Goff was football coach at Moscow High School for several years, and also a lay reader at the Episcopal Church in Colfax.
He was appointed Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Latah County in 1924 and elected to the position of Prosecuting Attorney in 1926, serving successive terms through 1934.
On August 24, 1927 Abe Goff married Florence Letitia Richardson, a 1923 graduate of the University of Idaho, who was a physical education teacher at the university. They had two children, Timothy Richardson and Annie McGregor.
In 1940 he was elected state senator after an unsuccessful primary campaign for the nomination as U.S. Senator. As state senator he introduced and secured passage of a bill recognizing the power of the Supreme Court to make rules governing procedure in all courts in Idaho. He also introduced bills amending the community property statutes.
In August 1941 he was recalled to active duty as a Major, later being promoted to Colonel, in the Judge Advocate General's Department. One of the first officers to go overseas, in February 1942 he was sent to Africa and the Middle East as legal advisor to the U.S. Military North African Mission, headquartered with the British army in Cairo. He was with the British during Rommel's advance across Africa in the spring of 1942. He also saw duty in Italian East Africa and Iran. He was military envoy to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and military escort of Madame Chaing Kai-shek during her visit to Eritrea.
Returning to the United States after sixteen months in Africa, Goff served as assistant chief of the International Law Division in the office of the Judge Advocate General and as Special Council for the War Department in numerous cases in Federal Courts throughout the U.S. involving the constitutionality of wartime powers exercised by army area commanders, and later served as Deputy Director of the U.S. War Crimes Office. He went to London as senior War Department representative to the Allied War Crimes Conference in 1945 and served in Europe and the Pacific area setting up procedures for the prosecution of war criminals. While assigned to General McArthur's staff in Tokyo he organized the International Prosecution Section for the trial of Tojo and other Japanese war criminals, but did not participate in the prosecutions.
He returned to the U.S. and the office of the Under Secretary of War in the spring of 1946 to serve, until relieved from duty in September 1946, as a member of a special clemency board charged with reviewing sentences of convicted military prisoners. He was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Army Commendation Medal, and eight other service or campaign medals.
In 1946, while still on active duty, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by Compton White, Sr. He won this election, and, as a member of the 80th Congress was elected president of the 80th Club, a group composed of 74 first year House Republicans; other officers were J. Caleb Boggs, vice-president, and Richard Nixon, secretary. Goff was also a member of the Committee on Agriculture and of the Speaker's Steering Committee for the House. In 1948 he was defeated in his bid for re-election by White when the First District voted heavily for Truman.
Following this defeat he, returned to active military duty for six months on a special assignment dealing with the new code for courts-martial, as chairman of a Board of Review in the office of the Army Judge Advocate General.
In the summer of 1949 he returned to Moscow to resume his law practice, this time alone, Orland having died in the interim. It was not until 1953, just shortly before going to Washington, D.C., that he took in a new partner, Cope Gale of St. Maries. Following the death of U.S. Senator Bert Miller in 1950, Goff attempted to gain the nomination for his seat, but lost out to former Senator Henry Dworshak.
Following the Eisenhower victory in 1952, Goff wrote many letters to colleagues asking for assistance in getting a federal appointment. His chance came in December 1953, when, at the request of Postmaster Arthur Summerfield, he went to Washington, D.C. to accept the position of Solicitor of the Post Office, a title which was later changed to General Council. His appointment became effective February 1, 1954.
He resigned his Post Office position when President Eisenhower named him to fill Owen Clarke's unexpired Interstate Commerce Commission term. His appointment was confirmed by the Senate on January 30, 1958 and he took his oath of office on February 12. On December 29, 1959, he was reappointed for a full seven year term. In April 1963 he replaced Donald McPherson as Vice Chairman of the Commission, and in 1964 his colleagues elected him Chairman. Although he had the unanimous endorsement of industry and the practitioners, President Johnson chose not to reappointment him when his term expired in December 1966. Goff remained on the commission until July 1967 when his replacement, Grant Syphers, was confirmed. In Goff's words: "Apparently I am too staunch a Republican and advocate of the independence of the Commission to be reappointed by this highly partisan administration."
Since he was within two years of mandatory retirement when he left the Interstate Commerce Commission, Goff decided to return to Moscow, Idaho, where he spent the remaining 17 years of his life. After several months of ill health, Abe Goff died on Friday, November 23, 1984. He was survived by his wife and daughter, his son having died previously.
He was a member of and held national offices in the Idaho State Bar Association, American Bar Association, American Society of International Law, American Judicature Society, Federal Bar Association, and Judge Advocates Association. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Military Appeals, Supreme Court of the Philippines, and the Supreme Court of Idaho. He was also a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Reserve Officers Association, The Military Order of the Carabao, Beta Theta Pi fraternity, Masons, and Elks. He was a longtime member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Moscow and served as its treasurer for many years while an attorney in town.
The papers of Abe McGregor Goff span the years 1915 to 1968, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1942 to 1967. There are 20 cubic feet of Interstate Commerce Commission material, 13 feet of cases decided by the commission and 7 feet of office files containing correspondence, newspaper clippings, brochures, reports, and reprints. The remaining material consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, brochures, etc. relating to Goff's careers in the military and Post Office Department, also his legal and political activities. There are also speeches, mementos, income tax returns, photographs, and scrapbooks, some relating to his days in Colfax and also his time at the University of Idaho.
There is very little material from Goff's political career, only a few brochures and posters from his campaigns, and some correspondence, much of it written after the Eisenhower victory in 1952 when Goff was attempting to obtain a government appointment. There is no material from his retirement years in Moscow.
The major portion of the Goff papers were received in sealed boxes for which Mr. Goff had prepared a brief description of the contents. These papers were left in their original order and the original folder headings and basic divisions were likewise retained. The second group of material, received in 1984, was likewise in labeled boxes. and folders. Although some of these items related to the earlier material no attempt at integration was made. Instead, the sealed boxes were considered as "professional" papers and the latter as "personal." The personal papers were sorted by career, i.e., Interstate Commerce Commission, Post Office, Military, early years. Each division contains papers, mementos, and photographs.
The Interstate Commerce Commission papers, which form the vast majority of this manuscript group, are divided into several subseries: cases, office files, personal files, and "Chairman's Reading File." The folders for the individual cases contain the original petitions, memorandums, reports, suggested changes in reports, records of commission votes, and final decisions of the commission. Some of the folders contain material from the files on Owen Clarke whom Goff replaced. Since there are so many cases (13 cubic feet) the contents are summarized by type in the following inventory.
The second subseries consists of office files arranged alphabetically. These include such items as the effect of Alaskan statehood on the ICC, and other background material for cases before the commission. The third subseries contains similar background material on general ICC practices as well as a few files of personal interests. the "Chairman's Reading File" contains letters written by others for Goff's signature, especially responses to congressmen and public officials.
The second series consists of correspondence Goff maintained while at the Post Office Department and the Interstate Commerce Commission. Most of the correspondence is a mixture of personal and professional. There is some interesting correspondence with Elizabeth Takeda dating from 1963-1967. She was a young Japanese girl the Goff's sponsored at the Parsons School of Design; Goff had become acquainted with her father when he was in Japan after World War II.
Series three, Trips and Speeches, is also subdivided. The first section contains a folder for each speech Goff gave while at the ICC. Included are correspondence, programs, travel vouchers, a marked copy of the speech, and photographs of the occasion. These are arranged chronologically. The second section contains speech notes, mimeographed speeches and printed speeches, some printed in the Congressional, others in Post Office journals. These are arranged chronologically by type of speech, e.g., patriotic and political, post office related, ICC related, etc.
The fourth series contains Goff's official Post Office papers, including correspondence with postal unions, which are arranged alphabetically by organization, material on official functions such as first day issues and post office dedications, and investigations, appointments, etc., which are arranged by state, and alphabetically arranged subject files. Among those items arranged by state is correspondence dealing with the remodeling of the Moscow post office.
The next series contains reports, correspondence, mementos, and photographs of Goff's military career. These are arranged by theater of operation. Also included in this series are two published books in which Goff has made notes. The rather late inclusive dates in this series reflect Goff's ongoing correspondence with some of his military colleagues.
Goff's legal office papers consist of correspondence and notes dealing with the examination of property abstracts, papers on specific cases he handled, and corporation, records for two businesses he was involved with, Moscow Air Transportation Company, and the Moscow Queen Mining Company.
The remaining papers constitute the personal papers. Series seven contains photographs, clippings, correspondence, and publications relating to Goff's public life, while series eight contains clippings and photographs of his family, friends, and college life. There are also items dealing with his fraternity activities and several certificates.
The final series contains oversize items such as scrapbooks, photograph albums, photographs, and medals from high school sporting events.
All material was originally in legal size folders; by refoldering into letter size folders the total number of containers was reduced. Many printed government documents in the Interstate Commerce Commission material were transferred to the Government Documents Department of the library, published books were added to the library's general collection. Duplicate near print items, especially numerous in this category were speeches and memoranda, were discarded, as were duplicate copies of programs and articles. In all, this group was reduced by 26 cubic feet.
The papers of Abe McGregor Goff were donated to the University of Idaho Library by Mr. Goff at two widely separated times. The first group, his official Interstate Commerce Commission and Post Office papers, were sent from Washington, D.C., in July 1967, with the proviso they be sealed for twenty years. The personal papers were donated in September 1984. The two groups were then combined.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.