Simon B. Goodman, born in Germany in 1872, completed an eighth-grade education, came to the United States at age 16, learned the tailoring trade, and established a well-known business in downtown Wilmington. He married Bessie Isaacs in 1898, and they lived in Wilmington for 40 years. Their son, Kennard E., graduated from Wilmington College in the Class of 1921, played bells in the College Orchestra, belonged to the Spanish Club, Pep staff, and The Wilmingtonian staff, and played a principal role in the Annual Play. After Simon's death in 1958, Bessie bought the 35 bells and carillon keyboard from the Vatican Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair and gave them to the College in his memory. Wilmington College then erected a 60-foot bell tower on the site of the old observatory. The carillon was regarded as an especially ecumenical endeavor, with a Catholic artifact given in memory of a Jewish man to a Quaker institution.