Lord Goodman, Mediator, Dies

Lord Goodman, newspaperman, patron of the arts and adviser to prime ministers and royalty, died Friday at the age of 81.

Goodman died in a nursing home after a long illness, a spokeswoman there said Saturday.

A lawyer by training, Arnold Abraham Goodman earned a reputation as a skilled negotiator and problem solver.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Goodman worked with prime ministers Harold Wilson and Edward Heath to help resolve the crisis in what was then Rhodesia, which became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe in 1980.

More recently, Goodman mediated between Prince Charles and Princess Diana before their separation in December 1992.

The following year, he persuaded Prime Minister John Major to settle out of court with a magazine that had falsely accused him of having an affair.