Evolution Of Type By Andreas Scheiger

Goudy wasn't always a type designer. "At 40, this short, plump, pinkish, and puckish gentleman kept books for a Chicago realtor, and considered himself a failure. During the next 36 years, starting almost from scratch at an age when most men are permanently set in their chosen vocations, he cut 113 fonts of type, thereby creating more usable faces than did the seven greatest inventors of type and books, from Gutenberg to Garamond."
Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "When I was a boy my father spelled our name 'Gowdy' which didn't offer any particular reason for verbal gymnastics. Later, learning that the old Scots spelling was 'Goudy,' he changed to that form, while I, for some years, retained the old way. My brother, in Chicago, still spells with the w. However, I find that occasionally a stranger pronounces the word with ou as long o in go, sometimes as ou in soup, or goo and less frequently with the ou as oo in good. I retain the original pronunciation with ou as in out." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please? - Funk & Wagnalls, 1936)