HALIFAX — A Halifax family that built a reputation for integrity, educational pursuit and cohesiveness has had its name memorialized on a Dalhousie University building.

The Goldberg Computer Science Building was officially named late last month for a family whose matriarch and patriarch came to North America in the early 1900s and moved to Halifax in 1912.

Seven children of Joseph and Sarah Goldberg succeeded in the medical, dental, legal and business communities, spawning grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have carried on the tradition of hard work and success.

A $2-million gift to the university – endowing four $39,000 renewable scholarships, two based on academic excellence and two on community service, plus 18 one-time $5,000 scholarships – were funded by benefactors Seymour Schulich of Toronto and his wife, Tanna Goldberg Schulich. Tanna is a granddaughter of Joseph and Sarah Goldberg, whose oldest son Meyer, Tanna’s father, left school after Grade 7 to assist his mother in the family business after the passing of Joseph a few years earlier.

“The motivation for this gift to Dalhousie, from which eight Goldbergs have graduated, and other Goldbergs attended, was the admiration the family has in this community and the close-knit relationship of the Goldbergs,” Seymour Schulich said at a press conference prior to the announcement of the naming.

“It’s inspiring to me to see that family relationship… I grew up in Montreal, and my family was not anywhere near as close as the family into which I married.”

“With the cost of providing a university education much higher than what students pay in fees, this is a debt that should be paid to assist the university to provide those educations,” he said.

Goldbergs travelled from Florida, Boston, Toronto and Washington to celebrate the naming, as well as the 65th wedding anniversary of Leonard and Miriam Goldberg. Leonard, 90, a retired dentist and Dal graduate, is the only surviving offspring of Joseph and Sarah.

He said education meant so much to his mother. “I know how proud she would be to see her name connected to Dalhousie in this way.”