Thomas Garza Photography
Of that myriad threads of traits that make up John Goff — I wouldn’t pretend to know them all — one seems to make a constant appearance.
Humility.
The concept has been the subject of much thought.
Anger, greed, drunkenness, and “all that are mere flea bites in comparison” to conceit and hubris, C.S. Lewis wrote.
The Bible, naturally, encourages a humble spirit. It’s a popular topic there. “Think of yourself with sober judgment,” Romans instructs.
Goff is the Fort Worth Inc. Person of the Year. Is an annual presentation we make every year to the man or woman who, over their time in Greater Fort Worth, has demonstrated significant contributions to making our city a better place to live, work, and play. They also generated exposure to the community from outside the borders of the city and state.
Former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Opal Lee, and TCU football coach Sonny Dykes are past honorees.
For Goff, this is the second such award within the calendar year. Last year, he was selected the Fort Worth Exchange Club’s Golden Deeds Award, presented to the person, from the club’s perspective, the most outstanding citizen of the year.
The Crescent Fort Worth hotel and office development west of downtown in the Cultural District, which opened in the fall, has fast become an iconic symbol of the city’s western half. Another office building at the complex is in the works.
The development houses Crescent Real Estate, Crescent Energy, Goff Capital, and Canyon Ranch, the luxury resort and wellness brand founded by Mel Zuckerman 40 years ago.
Along with 168,000 square feet of office space — currently — the project includes a 200-room luxury hotel, an upscale restaurant, Emilia’s, and 175 high-end residences.
But he has played a pivotal role as a change agent. His influence transcends industry.
Goff has been a guiding force, working with Bobby Ahdieh, the law school dean, and Chancellor John Sharp, in the establishment of Texas A&M-Fort Worth, a catalytic event in our history whose impact is at present incalculable.
The estimated $350 million Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus broke ground last year on the Law & Education Building.
The Law & Education Building is currently under construction and is planned to serve students in biotechnology, engineering, health sciences, law, medical laboratory sciences, nursing, virtual production, and more.
A second building, the Research & Innovation Building, is currently in planning and design. It is intended to bring academia and industry together under one roof to collaborate and serve as a catalyst for economic growth in the region.
The Amon G. Carter Foundation donated almost $11 million to the project in the form of $5 million and adjacent property to the campus.
But when talking to him about it all of this, he suggests we’ve got this all backward.
“I am very honored,” Goff says. “There are so many deserving people in Fort Worth contributing to make this a wonderful city to live and work. Fort Worth has been an incredible city to raise a family and start and grow businesses. I feel blessed to be here and I owe the city a great deal.”
I owe the city a great deal.
My experience interfacing with billionaire businessmen is limited. Humility wasn’t what I was expecting from a man who has achieved an uncommon stature in business and society, but humility practically defines John Goff.
He has called campus Texas A&M is building in downtown Fort Worth a legacy project for him. Of all he has accomplished over the course of a lifetime in business, it’s his role in bringing a Tier 1 research campus to Fort Worth that might be most important to him.
He has called the project a “game-changer” for the city. It has been brought about by a game-changer.
The beginning of his story is commoner-type stuff. We’ve written about it in the past.
He grew up in a middle-class family in Lake Jackson. His father was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. during that country’s revolution in the 19-teens.
Goff’s parents met at Austin College in Sherman. Janice Blackburn was the daughter of a hardware store owner in town, Blackburn Hardware. In addition to hardware, Goff recalls that his maternal grandfather sold coal and ice cream, too. Janice and Charlie Goff eloped to Dallas before she finished her degree.
Charlie Goff was at Austin College on an athletics scholarship, back when the school offered scholarships for sports. Charlie had a hall-of-fame career there, playing baseball, basketball, and football. That was a path the father had in mind for his youngest son, too.
Charlie graduated in 1940 just as the war was heating up on both shores. His father, with a new wife and soon with children, found a good paying job in Lake Jackson at the Dow plant, where he worked his way from entry level in the utility department to manager of material handling for the company’s Texas division.
Goff jokes that he was the unplanned addition to the family, the last in line of an older brother and two older sisters. His first job was picking pecans at age 8.
He went to Texas to study accounting while working at a hardware store. He says recently while we stood talking in Ralph’s, a rooftop bar at The Crescent, that he really wanted to work as a bartender while in college. But he couldn’t get a job.
“So, it was back to the hardware store,” he says while holding two shakers.
He began a career in Houston with $100 dollars in his wallet and almost nothing to wear to the job. On his first day, he dressed with what he had. He stayed at an “old dumpy” apartment, the guest of the brother of a friend until he had enough money to rent his own place.
“The first day on the job, I was being walked around and shown the office,” Goff says. “And this female partner pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, two things: One, your tie is sitting in your coffee.’ It was literally this kind of old ratty tie that was sitting in the coffee. The coffee was halfway up the tie. So, I was certainly embarrassed by that. And she said, ‘Secondly, I think you need to take the rest of the day off and go get an appropriate suit.’”
Though her logic was sound, there was an obvious problem.
He went to visit a haberdashery and a man there helped him pick out what he needed. “I didn’t know how to put a suit together.”
“We got down to paying and I said, ‘the problem is I have no money.’ He asked if I had a credit card. I said, ‘nope.’ He said, ‘You know, I trust you. You take all this, and you pay me when you can. I paid him within a a month or two, just little by little. And I'll never forget that guy.”
His name was Dain Higdon.
He moved to Fort Worth in 1981 for a job with KPMG, carrying all of the family’s stuff in a rented U-Haul.
Goff had gained a reputation as an astute assessor of a company’s prospects by an uncanny capability to “rip apart a financial statement.” In doing so he gained the trust and an association with Fort Worth billionaire Richard Rainwater, who opened up an entire new galaxy to John Goff.
Through Rainwater, Goff met Roger Staubach, a personal hero while growing up but then struggling to gain a foothold in real estate. Through Goff, Staubach did so. Goff and Rainwater with Rusty Rose and George W. Bush cut an ownership deal for the Texas Rangers, buying a distressed asset from Eddie Chiles. Rick Scott, today a senator from Florida, started Columbia/HCA with an investment from the team of Rainwater and Goff. Eddie Lampert, brought in from Goldman Sachs, started his highly successful investment fund in those same downtown offices.
Crescent Real Estate Equities, a company that he led in building with Rainwater, was the transformative deal. Crescent sold to Morgan Stanley for $6.5 billion in 2007. He bought it back in distress two years later at a sharp discount.
Goff’s civic engagement was ramped up during the pandemic. At the request of Mayor Betsy Price, Goff and banker Elaine Agather agreed to co-chair Fort Worth Now, an organization that facilitate mask distribution, vaccine delivery, and financial assistance. His example drew other benefactors.
It was out of Fort Worth Now that Texas A&M-Fort Worth came to life. What better way to advance the city than the establishment of a Tier 1 campus.
Crescent Real Estate has also sought to make a difference in communities where it operates, launching a program to adopt schools serving at-risk students. It also created a scholarship for non-officer members of the company. In 2010, the Goff Family Foundation established the B Sharp Youth Music Program, which offers elementary students in the Fort Worth school district immersive after-school music instruction, academic tutoring, and life-skills training.
“John Goff has cultivated a culture of excellence that is pivotal to Fort Worth’s prosperity and that shapes the trajectory of our city,” says Hal Brown, publisher of Fort Worth Inc. “His achievements epitomize unmatched acumen and innovation, and his humility and dedication to servant leadership marks his philanthropic pursuits, setting an extraordinary example for us all.”
Goff and his wife Cami more recently have dived into as benefactors of the $280 million Medal of Honor Museum under construction in Arlington near the sports arenas. Cami serves on the board of directors.
In preparing for this story, I asked Goff if, in the spirit of graduation season, he were making a commencement address to graduates what advice would he give. Who wouldn’t want career advice from John Goff.
As luck would have it, he had actually just given a commencement address, to the freshly minted graduates of Texas A&M Law School.
He covered the importance of having a simple plan that is continually adjusted; the importance of passion and hustle; having great mentors; being prepared to make big, bold decisions, and staying humble.
There it is. I knew it’d be in there.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t recall my roots and wonder … how the heck did all of this happen to a kid from Lake Jackson, Texas whose first job was picking pecans at age 8?” he told the graduates. “I genuinely try to stay grounded by my past and the process I went through to get to where I am.
“Each of you will define success differently and you will all reach a level of success. Avoid the natural temptation for that success to confuse you in terms of how you rank within our society. We are all equal. For all the accolades that I have received, I am still that kid from a small town, 100% a product of a public education that got out of school powered by grit and enthusiasm.”
We are all equal.
That was a virtue of where he came from.
“I started working really early and I loved work and just through work I've encountered so many people from all walks of life that I learned to never make assumptions about how a person may be helpful to you or in some way have an impact on your life regardless of what their financial position is,” Goff tells me. “I've always just been very appreciative and tried to be humble around anybody regardless of where they come from.
“I've been very blessed and fortunate to get into the financial position that I'm in, but that doesn’t make me a different person or any better than anybody.”