Cecil Wray Goodchild, painter and printmaker, was born in San Luis Obispo, California on December 19, 1901. He moved to southern California in 1932 and eventually settled in Glendale. He was self-taught as an artist and specialized in watercolor and woodengraving.  

Goodchild's work was included in the Biltmore Salon in 1931 and 1932 and was exhibited in the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939, and received a number of prizes. He produced his first book in 1931. Entitled California Milestones, it included fifty-two woodengravings and was published by Bark N' Rags in Los Angeles. In 1932, he produced a portfolio of woodengravings, entitled El camino de la cruz; wood engravings of the original twenty-one Franciscan missions of Alta, California. His work is in the collections of the Los Angeles Public Library, Mills College, and the Library of Congress.

Goodchild died in Pismo Beach, California on May 19, 1983.