Dr. Godwin's teaching has been primarily in undergraduate prosthodontics, and in continuing education courses. Dr. Godwin has supervised the construction of mouthguards for the University of Michigan football and hockey players. He has encouraged dentists in various towns throughout the state to provide mouthguards for high school athletes and has been successful in this endeavor. Dr. Godwin has authored numerous articles and has participated in many symposia on intra oral protection and related subjects promoting the prevention of oral facial injuries to athletes. He served as Vice-President of the Ann Arbor Hockey Association, and President of the Ann Arbor Amateur Hockey League, and was dental consultant to the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at The University of Michigan. Dr. Godwin was consulting editor for the American Dental Association (ADA) Journal, and chair of the Michigan State Dental Association Committee on Mouth Protection. He was awarded the Governor's Trophy in Health Sciences in 1962 and a Certificate of Merit from The University of Michigan in 1982.

Dr. Godwin's dedication and excellence as a preclinical and clinical teacher lead to his receiving the Paul Gibbons Award as outstanding teacher of the year in 1976. His research activity has included the development of a mouthguard to protect the dentition of athletes in contact sports. Beyond this he has been instrumental in the development of model programs to provide athletes with custom filled mouthguards.