Gross Shuman P.C. co-founder Gordon Gross, a prominent local attorney and community leader, has died.
The Buffalo native died March 25 in Charleston, S.C., where he and his wife spend the winters. He was 87.
A 1955 graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law, he was a founding member several years later of Gross Shuman. The law firm operated for many years as Gross Shuman Brizdle & Gilfillan P.C. and today has offices in Buffalo, Amherst and Burlington, Ont.
An Army veteran, he served in 1955-57 as a lawyer in the Judge Advocate General Corps stationed in Alaska, according to a release from the Buffalo Jewish Federation.
He also was a founder, trustee and officer of Dominion Mortgage & Realty Trust from 1971 to 1982.
Gross was president of the Buffalo Jewish Federation in 1982-84 and received the Nathan Benderson Community Leadership Award in 1998, the release said. He was president of Kadimah School in 1987-88 and president of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies in 1995-97.
Gross was a SUNY trustee in 2001-08 and a member of the county, state and national bar associations. He was a past member of former Gov. George Pataki’s Fourth Department, Judicial Screening Committee.
He also was on the Federal Merit Selection Panel of the U.S. Magistrate Judge of the Western District of New York.
His community service was wide ranging and extended to the arts, education, health care and philanthropy. According to the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, he was a member of 24 boards and led 12 of them.
Gross and his wife, Gretchen, endowed a professorship with a lead gift to the University at Buffalo’s Department of Jewish Thought.
They have been major donors to the law school and made a gift to the UB School of Dental Medicine in memory of Gordon’s brother, Dr. Alan Gross, who died from cancer.
He recently served on the board of advisers of the investment committee of the UB Foundation, the board of the Park School Foundation and of Read to Succeed Buffalo.
He is former president of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo and a past trustee of Temple Beth Zion.
Gross was chair and trustee of Kleinhans Music Hall Management Inc. in 1995. He chaired the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc. in 1997-98.
A director of Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp. and an avid cyclist, Gordon Gross was a leading fundraiser for the Ride for Roswell.
Among the many awards he received over the years were the National Federation for Just Communities 2018 Citation Award, UB’s 2010 Samuel P. Capen Award, the UB School of of Arts and Sciences Julien Park Award and the 1996 Distinguished Law Alumni Award from the law school.
In 2013, the Community Foundation established the Gordon R. Gross, Esq. Award to recognize “a professional advisor who embodies the Foundation’s mission to drive positive change in our community, like its namesake, Gordon R. Gross.”
He is survived by his wife, two daughters, five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m., March 29 in the Sanctuary of Temple Beth Zion on Delaware Avenue.