Goddard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to Nahum Danford Goddard (1859–1928) and Fannie Louise Hoyt (1864–1920). Robert was their only child to survive; a younger son, Richard Henry, was born with a … See more

The young Goddard was a thin and frail boy, almost always in fragile health. He suffered from stomach problems, pleurisy, colds, and bronchitis, and he fell two years behind his classmates. He became a voracious r… See more

In the decades around 1910, radio was a new technology, fertile for innovation. In 1912, while working at Princeton University, Goddard investigated the effects of radio waves on insulators. In order to generate radio-frequ… See more