'Last of his generation': Family, friends remember owner of A.C. Goodier A/C in Holly Hill

Clayton Park, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
·6 min read
Caroline Busto holds a photo of her late father A.C. "Bud" Goodier, the founder of A.C. Goodier Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, who died on March 5, 2022, at age 86. Also pictured are Goodier's other daughter, Cindy Tanner, and longtime employees Ben Cubbedge, right, and his son Ben Cubbedge Jr.
Caroline Busto holds a photo of her late father A.C. "Bud" Goodier, the founder of A.C. Goodier Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, who died on March 5, 2022, at age 86. Also pictured are Goodier's other daughter, Cindy Tanner, and longtime employees Ben Cubbedge, right, and his son Ben Cubbedge Jr.

DAYTONA BEACH — Austin Cyril "Bud" Goodier had no experience when he began working as an air-conditioning technician in the late 1950s, but he proved a quick study. After just one year, he started his own business in early 1959.

Goodier died on March 5 at his Port Orange home, at age 86, but his Holly Hill business, A.C. Goodier Air Conditioning, lives on.

Its iconic cucumber logo will soon bear an image of his face, said daughters Caroline Busto and Cindy Tanner.

"Coolie is going to have Dad's face," said Busto, referring to the cartoon cucumber character Goodier created to become part of his company's logo. "Somebody told him the phrase 'cool as a cucumber' and he liked it," she recalled of how Coolie the Cucumber came to be.

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"Bud (Goodier) was probably one of the last of his generation who all got into the air-conditioning business in the 1950s and '60s and wound up starting their own companies," said Chris Koontz, the president of Koontz Heating & Air-Conditioning in Holly Hill. Koontz's company was started in 1967 by his father, the late Jerry Koontz.

Seeing the need for air-conditioning services as Volusia County's population continued to grow, the Daytona Beach area by the end of the 1960s had become home to close to a dozen, if not more, independent A/C companies, said Koontz.

Some of the other longtime local air-conditioning company owners who died in the past 10 years included Don Meyer of D.G. Meyer Inc., Tom McGuire Sr. of Flair Air Conditioning, and Harold VanBrocken of Von-Aire.

Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association for Volusia County, said A.C. Goodier serviced the oceanfront Hawaiian Inn when he relocated here from upstate New York in 1966 to take over as the hotel's general manager.

"Bud Goodier was a personal friend of mine," said Davis, who continued to get together for coffee with Goodier at Denny's in Port Orange over the decades. "He'd order sausage to take it home to his wife Janet," he recalled. "He was my A/C specialist. He was a great human being, and a great dancer."

Began as a self-taught A/C technician

A.C. "Bud" Goodier is seen here with his wife Janet shortly after they moved to Daytona Beach in the 1950s.
A.C. "Bud" Goodier is seen here with his wife Janet shortly after they moved to Daytona Beach in the 1950s.

Goodier was born in Brooklyn and came down to Daytona Beach for the first time in 1952 with his dad, a retired banker who was recently widowed at the time. "They lived on a broken-down boat in the Halifax River yacht basin," said his eldest daughter, Cindy Tanner, 64.

After a stint in the U.S. Army, Bud Goodier married and moved back to Daytona Beach with his bride and their then-6-month-old baby in December 1957. Goodier immediately took a job as an A/C technician even though he had no prior training.

"My dad said he knew nothing about air-conditioning and taught himself everything he needed to know," said Tanner.

Goodier started out servicing commercial businesses including area hotels as well as restaurants. One of the local business owners he befriended was NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who built Daytona International Speedway in the late 1950s.

"One of my dad's big regrets was turning Bill France down when he asked him to become an investor in the Speedway," said Busto. With a young family to support, "he was worried about taking the gamble."

In addition to servicing air-conditioning customers by day, Goodier also briefly operated a side business in the 1960s: a bar at the Streamline Hotel, the birthplace of NASCAR. The bar was called The Twilight Zone.

Goodier returned to focusing full-time on his air-conditioning business as it grew. He eventually expanded to include servicing residential customers.

Busto recalled when she was growing up that, "All I had to do was say my last name was Goodier and people would ask, 'Are you Bud Goodier's daughter?'"

Located in Holly Hill since the 1980s

A.C. "Bud" Goodier, center, the founder of A.C. Goodier Air Conditioning & Refrigeration in Holly Hill, is seen here with his employees in 1959, the year he started his business.
A.C. "Bud" Goodier, center, the founder of A.C. Goodier Air Conditioning & Refrigeration in Holly Hill, is seen here with his employees in 1959, the year he started his business.

After starting out on Ballough Road, A.C. Goodier moved to its present address at 221 State Ave. in Holly Hill in the 1980s.

Ben Cubbedge Sr. began working for A.C. Goodier when he was 19, not long after the business moved to Holly Hill. Today, Cubbedge, 55, is the service manager. His son, Ben Jr., 37, is a lead installer who also began working for Goodier straight out of high school.

Goodier kept working up until a couple weeks before his death. He survived a bout with cancer 15 years earlier and was determined to beat it again when he learned it had come back a few months ago, said his daughters.

"He was very strong willed. There was no telling him no," said Busto. "He was 86, but his mind was like a much-younger person. He fought to his last breath."

Goodier also maintained his ritual of starting each day drinking coffee at the Denny's restaurant on Dunlawton Avenue in Port Orange. He would take his dog Asia with him on weekends.

Peggy Williams has been a waitress at the Port Orange Denny's since it opened in June 1989. Goodier was a regular since day one, she said. "He'd usually come around 6, 6:30. He'd occasionally come by for lunch, too, sometimes with his wife, Janet. He'd always sit at the counter and always had a funny story to tell."

"All the girls here loved him," Williams said. "He was just a wonderful man. It's a big loss in our lives. He was like an adopted dad to me."

Tanner said her dad believed "if you stop moving your life was over. He had no interest in retiring. He loved his business and he loved his employees and customers. It was his life."

Goodier also enjoyed flying, boating and raising and selling horses.

Cubbedge and his son will take over day-to-day operations of the business, which will continue to be owned by Goodier's daughters. Tanner works as an operating room nurse at Halifax Health while Busto works as a para-professional at Spruce Creek High School where her mom was a longtime employee.

Goodier is survived by his wife Janet, his daughters, son-in-law Juan Busto, three grandchildren and one great-grand child.

The public is invited to a celebration of life for Goodier will be held on April 6, from 5 to 8 p.m., at Countryside Clubhouse at 951 Village Trail in Port Orange. Goodier's family asks that donations in his name be made to the Halifax Humane Society.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: A.C. Goodier air conditioning's Florida owner dies