BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
HILLSDALE, N.J.—What would you do with the gift of $1 million?
The Board of Trustees of the Hillsdale Free Public Library gets to answer that for itself, as it has just announced that the library will benefit from the gift of a cool million from the Gayle and Paul Gross Foundation.
The donation, which will be funded in wallops of $100,000 a year over the next decade, is to support new or expanded library programs and initiatives with an eye toward innovations that will attract and involve all facets of the community.
The board is setting up a foundation to manage the money, which library officials said is a record gift for the institution.
“This one and many others we hope to be lucky enough to have come our way,” Library Director Dave Franz told Pascack Press on Nov. 14, as the gift agreement was taking shape.
In return, the board will rededicate the building that houses the library, at 509 Hillsdale Ave., as the Gayle and Paul Gross Building, named for the venerable local philanthropists and public servants.
Signs at the front and rear of the library will bear the Grosses’ names. A lobby plaque will note their vision and dedication to the library.
The borough’s governing body signed off on the gift agreement—negotiated in library board closed sessions over several months—on Dec. 11. The Grosses and the library board sealed the deal Dec. 17.
Franz, announcing the gift on Christmas Eve, said he anticipates that the new library foundation will supplement community efforts of the library’s Friends organization, which he characterized as excellent.
“Libraries are the perfect complement to self-improvement and lifelong learning. We are grateful for the future opportunities the Hillsdale Library can offer its patrons with this wonderful gift,” Franz told Pascack Press.
According to the gift agreement, on file at Borough Hall, the money will be used exclusively to benefit the library and to further the charitable, educational, and scientific purposes of the library.
That includes strengthening programs, encouraging a wider interest in the library, and/or raising the funds necessary to supplement the library’s budget.
A portion of the initial installment can be used to establish the creation of the foundation and the new signage for the building.
In recognition of the gift, within 120 days following receipt of the first installment, the name of the library building shall be changed to the Gayle and Paul Gross Building.
Committed to Hillsdale
Gayle and Paul Gross established themselves as residents of Hillsdale when they were 23. As their family expanded, they moved several times but elected to remain in Hillsdale for 60 years.
Paul Gross built a thriving insurance brokerage firm, The NIA Group, which was headquartered in Paramus. He sold this a few years ago.
The couple established their foundation in 1981.
Former Mayor Tim O’Reilly named Paul Gross to the library Board of Trustees, and he served 2001-2007. He was chairman of the 2003-2005 capital campaign, which raised $185,000 for renovations toward the 2006 grand reopening.
The Gayle and Paul Gross Foundation is acknowledged atop the capital campaign’s plaque of honor in the lower lobby.
The family has supported multiple Hillsdale works, including a playground at Beechwood Park and decorative lighting around Memorial Park.
Further afield, in 2014 their foundation awarded a five-year, $250,000 challenge grant to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
The center, established in 1990 as part of the Salameno School of Humanities and Global Studies, supports Jewish organizations and causes in the arts, human services, and education.
It was renamed the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
The Jewish Standard said in its reporting of that grant award that, during the 50 years they lived in Bergen County, Paul and Gayle Gross were involved in many nonprofits, including the YJCC in the Township of Washington, now Bethany Community Center.
The couple retired to Florida in 2010.
According to a website that tracks foundations, in its most recent reporting year ending Dec. 2017, the Gayle and Paul Gross Foundation reported assets of $9,181,288 (ledger value) and income of $5,236,530.
The foundation’s major donor is reported as Paul Gross.
‘It is our family’s honor’
Reached by phone at home in West Palm Beach, Florida on Dec. 26, Gross told Pascack Press that he had suggested to Franz that he would like to see an expanded adult education lecture series thrive at Hillsdale Library.
He also praised Franz for his stewardship of the library, giving him a grade of A-plus and saying he was confident that the two men shared a vision for the role of the library in town.
Of the size of the gift, which he said even his children found magnanimous, Gross said he owed much to Hillsdale for nurturing him, his wife, and their growing family from the start.
He bought his first home here, in the Tandy and Allen section, just two years out of college.
“When you’re successful you’ve got to give credit. Even though I didn’t do much business in town, you have to give credit for that success. My children are wonderful, and part of that owes to their schools system, their friends, and their friends’ relatives; over the years I’ve tried to give back to Hillsdale every way I could,” he said.
The couple have three children, 11 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
In a conversation that ranged from the need for more emphasis on history in the schools to the history and direction of Hillsdale, Gross recalled his role in the fight to keep the library at its current site.
He said that, as the town is built out, more community good can and should take place at the library, which was his family’s honor to support.
Gross told Pascack Press he and his wife would return to town when the new library signs go up and that they would decide by then whether they would like for there to be a small ceremony to mark the occasion.
For his part, Franz said he has long been impressed with the Grosses’ commitment to education, noting that Paul continued to teach classes at Bergen Community College while managing his business and volunteering as a library board trustee.
The Board of Trustees of the Hillsdale Free Public Library will meet on the following dates in 2019, all at the library at 7:30 p.m.: Jan. 14, Feb. 11, March 11, April 8, May 13, June 10, July 8, Aug. 12, Sept. 9, Oct. 21, Nov. 11, and Dec. 9.
For more Hillsdale library information, visit https://myhillsdalelibrary.org.