DEA Awards Presented | Tennessee Wesleyan University

The Goodfriend College of Business and Professional Studies hosted the annual Distinguished Entrepreneur Awards Luncheon on Thursday, October 31. This year, three awards were presented.

Morris David “Mike” Goodfriend and Morris Goodfriend were recognized posthumously in a video presentation that chronicled Morris’ immigration from Austria-Hungary to New York and eventually Athens, Tennessee, where he and son, Mike, established mercantile stores that led to establishing Goody’s Family Clothing.

Mr. Bill Kilbride, a 1968 graduate of TWU received the award for his successful career that began at the New York Stock Exchange, transitioned to Mohawk Home Division as President and later Chief Sustainability Officer, and after retirement led to the top position with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and was later appointed by President Trump to serve on the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors where he was elected Chair in 2020.

The complete video of the luncheon and biographical sketches of each honoree are below:

William "Bill" Kilbride

A native of Long Island, New York, William B. “Bill” Kilbride came to Athens, Tennessee, in 1968 to attend Tennessee Wesleyan University. At Tennessee Wesleyan, he found a place where he could hunt, fish, and explore another part of the country. After graduating in 1972 with a degree in business management, he worked at the New York Stock Exchange as Director of Market Surveillance and later as an executive with Dean Witter Reynolds.

In 1992, his love for the south and his connections to Tennessee brought him back to the region when he was asked to serve as President and Chief Operating Officer of American Rug Craftsmen. Two years later, the company was sold to Mohawk Industries, where he was named President of the Mohawk Home Division and later the corporation’s Chief Sustainability Officer. During Kilbride’s 20-year tenure with Mohawk, the Home Division grew from $100 million in sales to approximately $900 million in sales.

Retiring in 2014, Kilbride soon became the Chief Executive Officer of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, a position he held for three years. During his tenure at the Chamber, he boosted memberships by more than 700 businesses and helped lay the groundwork for a new workforce development initiative known as Chattanooga 2.0. In 2016, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce was named “Chamber of the Year” in North America. In 2018, at the urging of United States Senator Bob Corker, Kilbride was nominated by President Donald Trump and approved by the United States Senate to serve on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board of Directors. Two years later, he was elected to serve as Chairman of the TVA Board, which governs America’s largest government owned utility. He completed that term in 2024. Beyond TVA, he has served on numerous public and private boards, and he is a member of First-Centenary United Methodist Church in Chattanooga.

A recipient of Tennessee Wesleyan’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1999 and the institution’s nominee for inclusion in the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA) Hall of Fame in 2023, Kilbride remains a champion for his alma mater. He has served several terms on the University’s Board of Trustees, and in 2014, he and his wife, Mary, generously donated their 92-acre farm on the banks of the Tennessee River in Dayton, Tennessee, which is now known as Tennessee Wesleyan’s Kilbride Nature Sanctuary. The property is a living laboratory for students and faculty in the fields of botany, zoology, plant physiology, ecology, and other educational opportunities, as well as an outdoor classroom for historical study, and a place for spiritual retreat and renewal.
Kilbride is married to his wife, Mary, and they are the parents to three grown daughters. Mary and Bill reside in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Morris Goodfriend

Morris Goodfriend was born in Austria-Hungary on April 15, 1884. At 11 years old, he immigrated to the United States. He came to Athens, Tennessee, in 1913, to open M. Goodfriend, a men’s clothing store, located downtown on Washington Avenue. It was here that the family patriarch would operate his store for the next 55 years. From it, both the Athens Outlet Store, founded by his son, Morris David “Mike” Goodfriend, and Goody’s Family Clothing, Inc., founded by his grandson, Robert M. “Bobby” Goodfriend, were born. All were successful enterprises, with the latter growing into 383 stores throughout the southeastern United States.

Goodfriend was active in various civic and social affairs in the Athens area. He was a 50-year member of the Meridian Sun Lodge No. 50 F&M. He belonged to the Scottish Consistory in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the Alhambra Shrine in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was a charter member of the Athens Elks Lodge and one of the organizers of what would eventually become the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. He and his family were longtime members of Temple Beth El in Knoxville.

Upon his death, the following editorial was written in The Daily Post-Athenian:

There was an era when store equipment and furnishings were known as fixtures. It was in that day when a young man, M. Goodfriend, opened the doors of a general clothing store in Athens. For the next 55-years that name would become synonymous with quality men’s wear in the business family of this area and East Tennessee.

“Mike” was a name quickly learned and its owner was a man easily talked with. Young men of the third generation of store customers now lead the hands of the fourth under the big neon nameplate, M. Goodfriend.

In the finest sense of expression, Mike was a fixture in the vicinity. Before the days of air conditioning and controlled atmosphere, he developed the custom of standing just outside his store door. This practice he continued throughout his five decades of merchandising. Mike liked people and people liked Mike. This sidewalk classroom made him merchant, philosopher, and general conversationalist.

His death last Saturday removed another of the senior citizens of the community from the ranks of mortals. True enough change must come and death is inevitable, yet when a fixture is removed things are never the same. M. Goodfriend will be sorely missed.

Goodfriend and his wife, Ricka Licht Goodfriend, had one child, Morris David “Mike” Goodfriend. He died on April 5, 1968, and was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Knoxville.

M. D. "Mike" Goodfriend

Morris David “Mike” Goodfriend was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 16, 1916, and lived much of his life in Athens, Tennessee, until he retired to Sarasota, Florida, in 1991. He attended McMinn County High School for three years and graduated from Columbia Military Academy. He would go on to attend the University of Alabama, graduating in 1938. While there, he was President of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. He would then attend Northwestern University where he received a graduate degree in retail merchandising in 1939. He worked for Mandel Brothers Department Store from 1939 to 1941 in Chicago, Illinois.

Uncle Sam called Goodfriend for service in World War II on July 5, 1941. He entered service as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps and was promoted to Captain on February 1, 1942. He served in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Ogden, Utah, and was then sent to England in September 1943 where he served until December 1945, after the war ended. He was in the Air Corps Reserve until 1957, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

After working in Gadsden, Alabama, for one year, Goodfriend returned to Athens to work in his father’s men’s clothing store, M. Goodfriend, in 1947. In 1953, he and a partner opened the first Athens Outlet Store on Washington Avenue, each putting in $5,000 in capital. They specialized in discount apparel. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, under Goodfriend’s leadership, the business was transformed into a local outlet chain. That business would eventually grow into 383 stores known as Goody’s Family Clothing, Inc. He bought out his partner and ran the business with his son, Robert M. “Bobby” Goodfriend, who joined him after his college graduation in 1972. He officially retired from Goody’s when he was 75.

In 1987, Goodfriend was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Tennessee Wesleyan University. He was inducted into the “Community Builders Hall of Fame” by the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in 1992. He was a 32nd degree Mason and in the Shriners, a member of the Elks Club, and a longtime member of Temple Beth El in Knoxville. He was active in his community throughout his life, serving and supporting many local and national charitable organizations.

Goodfriend and his wife, Shirlie Buchman Goodfriend, had two children, Robert M. “Bobby” Goodfriend, and Linda Goodfriend Johnson. He died on September 13, 2013, and was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Knoxville.

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Distinguished Entrepreneur Awards presented