William Maxwell Goodwin

On December 11th 2022, William Maxwell Goodwin died unexpectedly in Carmel, Indiana of natural causes. He was 83 years of age.

William is survived by his daughters, Lauri (David) Roe and Lisa (Roger) McCoy; six grandchildren, Madison, Morgan, Camden, and Mackenzie Roe and Kira and Ryan McCoy; and sister, Becky Goodwin. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, LaDonna Erickson Goodwin; and his parents, Donald Goodwin and Beth Maxwell Goodwin.

William was born on October 13th 1939 in Muncie, IN. He graduated from Scircleville High School in 1957. A 1961 graduate of Indiana University, William earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in German and Russian and later earned his MBA from the Kelley School of Business.

Following graduation from IU, William served as a liaison officer for the U.S. Army Intelligence and Counterintelligence School in Berchtesgaden, Germany. He and Donna enjoyed traveling across Europe experiencing the rich culture, wonderful food, and especially skiing together.

Upon returning to the United States, he obtained his MBA and worked as an auditor with major client responsibilities at the accounting firm of Ernst and Young in Indianapolis.

He then served in a range of executive roles at Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc., including controller, secretary-treasurer, chief financial officer and vice president over a 35-year career. He was responsible for the awarding of grants totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars during his tenure. William retired in 2007 as vice president of community development.

An avid philanthropist and community volunteer, William was one of the founders of the Indiana Sports Corp., an organization that has brought hundreds of national amateur athletic events to Indianapolis. He also served as treasurer of the organization and as treasurer of the National Sports Festival and the Pan-American Games when the latter came to Indianapolis. For several years, William also served as the chairman of the Amateur Athletic Union’s Sullivan Award Gala, which selects and honors the nation’s greatest amateur athlete.

In 2017, he was honored by Indiana University with the Old Crescent Award, which recognized his nearly 20 years of support to the Department of Germanic Studies on an annual basis, contributing heavily to an unrestricted fund that supports the department as a whole and its students and faculty.

A private memorial service for William will be held at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the German Department at Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences.