FROM THE NEST | SPRING 2025 | 39 was captain during his senior year. Goodman graduated from Lehigh in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He began a career in the general contracting business before launching M.H. Goodman & Company in 1960; he changed the name to The Goodman Company in 1967. From 1979 to 2000, Goodman served as a member of Lehigh’s board of trustees, with Lehigh awarding him an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1988. Goodman’s basketball prowess led to his induction into the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2022, Goodman was honored with a Lifetime Commitment to Lehigh Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement among Lehigh University alumni and honors those whose success has impacted their respective industries and communities. “Mr. Goodman may be the most deserving of this lifetime achievement award,” Lehigh’s former Murray H. Goodman Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett ’76 said in a video commemorating the award. “He’s been extraordinarily timely in his ability to have an impact, and I’m not sure he even realizes the extent of the impact that he’s had.” A Lasting Legacy at Lehigh The extent of Goodman’s impact is indeed vast and lasting. In 1983, the Saucon Valley campus was named the Murray H. Goodman Campus in recognition of Goodman's generous contribution to develop and endow the 550 acres into a sports and athletic complex. The campus includes the 16,000-seat Murray H. Goodman Stadium and the Goodman Track and Field Complex. In 1986, Goodman made another pledge that enabled construction of the Murray H. Goodman Stadium, the centerpiece of the Goodman Campus with picturesque South Mountain in the background, which opened in 1988. “The amount of prestige that the Goodman Campus and its facilities bring to the athletics department and to the university as a whole is tremendous,” said former head football coach Kevin Higgins. “Goodman Stadium and the entire campus is a major focal point of [Lehigh’s] recruitment process.” While Goodman had a permanent impact on Lehigh athletics, he believed equally in supporting academics. Former President Peter Likins said, “I’m sure today people think of Murray in the context of athletic spaces … but I think his primary impact on Lehigh is cultural. He was one of the major players in helping us evolve into a more sophisticated, much more intellectually diverse, kind of learning environment.” In 1991, he signed a formal agreement pledging to endow the Murray H. Goodman Center for Real Estate Studies. He also recognized former Lehigh President W. Deming Lewis in 1993 with a leadership gift for an indoor tennis facility on the Goodman Campus to be known as the Lewis Tennis Center. In 2002, Goodman created his third endowment to support the head basketball coach, naming the position the Murray H. Goodman ’48 Head Basketball Coach. In 2004, as an honorary chair of Lehigh’s Shine Forever campaign, Goodman endowed the Murray H. Goodman Dean of Athletics position and established the Webster A. Collins and Murray H. Goodman Endowed Chair in Real Estate Studies jointly with Webster Collins ’57. It is with great pride that Goodman is recognized as one of Lehigh’s most generous donors and part of the 1865 Society for lifetime giving and Tower Society for support of the endowment. Sterrett, with whom Goodman had a more than 40-year bond, said that Goodman was a man with “great vision, who has the ability to see things that don’t exist and … weld them into being.” More Than a Lehigh Man Goodman was an enthusiastic civic and community leader for most of his life. While still living in Allentown, Goodman became active in the United Jewish Appeal, a significant Jewish philanthropic organization in the United States established in 1939 to support Jewish communities worldwide; it is now known as the Jewish Federations of North America. Through his engagement with the United Jewish Appeal, he was a major contributor to the development of a school in Ma’alot, Israel. He supported numerous civic and charitable organizations, such as the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the Jewish Federation and national educational programs. He was a director, trustee or founder of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation, Inc.; Schepens Eye Research Institute; the Jewish Federation; Palm Beach Day School; Palm Beach Civic Association; Good Samaritan Hospital; and the Treasure Coast Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. His contributions have left a lasting impact on the commercial real estate industry, community developmentand civic engagement. Goodman is survived by his wife, Joanie Mellor Goodman, five children and four grandchildren.—Kristen DiPrinzio and Katelyn Silva Murray H. Goodman ’48 ’88H made a generous pledge that enabled construction of the Murray H. Goodman Stadium. “MURRAY GOODMAN WAS A SYMBOL OF AMERICAN INGENUITY, GRIT AND DETERMINATION; HE WAS ALSO ONE OF THE MOST GENEROUS MEN I’VE HAD THE PRIVILEGE TO KNOW.” —President Joseph J. Helble ’82 RYAN HULVAT
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