Charles True Goodsell, professor emeritus and former director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The son of Charles T. and Francess Comee Goodsell, he earned a bachelor's degree at Kalamazoo College. After serving in the U. S. Army from 1954 to 1956, he obtained master's and doctoral degrees at Harvard University.

In 1961, Goodsell became an assistant professor of public administration at the University of Puerto Rico; he was a research associate at Princeton University from 1964 until 1966, when he became a professor of political science at Southern Illinois University. Goodsell joined the faculty of Virginia Tech in 1978 as a professor of public administration and public affairs and served as director of the university's Center for Public Administration and Policy.

Goodsell's numerous publications range beyond political science and public administration into the fields of architecture, economics, history, sociology, and Latin American studies. He is the author of ; ; ; ; and and many articles published in scholarly journals, as well as the editor of . He is a member of the American Political Science Association, the American Society for Public Administration, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the Southern Political Science Association. Recipient of the Dwight Waldo award for outstanding lifetime contributions to the literature of public administration, Dr. Goodsell retired in 2002.