H. Wallace Goddard, Ph. D., is a Professor and Family Life Specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. He has created numerous family programs and a PBS television series. His previous books include The Soft-Spoken Parent, The Frightful and Joyous Journey of Family Life, and My Heart Delighteth in the Scriptures: Personal and Family Applications as well as a revision of the classic Between Parent and Child.

Wally has written for Meridian Magazine since 1999—the first year it was introduced online. His acquaintance with Scot and Maurine Proctor who publish the magazine was one of those "chance" meetings that was meant to be. He ended up sitting by Maurine at the World Family Policy Forum and they began talking. The subject of Meridian Magazine came up and Wally told her about his passion for writing—about some of the very subjects Meridian most wanted to cover. Because of that one serendipitous meeting Wally became one of Meridian’s most prolific, most insightful, and most loved columnists.

Wally has served in the Church as a bishop, institute teacher, and high councilor. He and his wife Nancy have three adult children and a growing number of amazing grandchildren. Over the years they have cared for twenty foster children.