Park Profiles SPRING 2014 Class of ’49 Class of ’68 Class of ’73 Class of ’85 Class of ’75 Sixth Grade Teacher Class of ’15 Class of ’15 Class of ’00 Park Profiles SPRING 2014 We are pleased to profile alumni and members of the Park community whose stories we feel are interesting to all. Our remarkable alumni have achieved much in college, in their careers, and in many volunteer and philanthropic endeavors. We hope you enjoy learning more about them, as well as about the current faculty member and students who are also featured. IN THIS EDITION: 1 Gordon Gross, Class of 1949 2 Lindsey Ross, Class of 2000 3 Jack Levy, Class of 1985 4 Wendy Caldwell Maloney, Class of 1975 5 Frederick King Keller, Class of 1968 6 Alison Hudnut Clarkson, Class of 1973 7 Jim Hanlon, Faculty 8 Cary & Oliver Killeen, Class of 2015 CONTRIBUTORS: Greg Connors, Elizabeth Rakas DESIGN: Flynn & Friends, Inc. 4625 HARLEM ROAD SNYDER, NEW YORK 14226 (716) 839-1242 THEPARKSCHOOL.ORG GORDON GROSS Class of 1949 Gordon Gross is so humble and down-to-earth you After a two-year stint in the Army, Gross embarked would never suspect that he is one of Buffalo’s most on his legal career, opening a practice with Irv civic-minded citizens and generous philanthropists. Shuman. The firm came to specialize in corporate, A founding partner of the law firm Gross, Shuman, real estate, and securities law. Brizdle, & Gilfillan, Gross is driven by causes and a duty to give back to others. A PASSION FOR CYCLING He has a self-deprecating sense of humor when Gross’ brother, Alan, encouraged him talking about himself. “When I came to Park in my to take up cycling and they enjoyed freshman year, academically, I was out in left field. I riding together before Alan became think ‘Buddy on the Farm’ was my highest reading ill with cancer. “Alan was my ‘hero,’” level,” he says, chuckling. says Gross. “He was an avid cyclist and got me into it. We rode two ‘centuries’ INSPIRED BY PARK TEACHERS (100-mile rides) together; I’ve done four altogether.” “I look back with great fondness to Mrs. Cheek, who was not only my history teacher but also my Alan Gross was a dentist who taught greatest single motivator. She pushed me toward at UB’s School of Dental Medicine. getting very serious in my studies.” Shortly before Alan passed away, Gordon and his wife, Gretchen, organized a memorial fund >> YEARS at PARK: 1945-1949 He enjoyed English teacher Tommy Van Arsdale in Alan’s name at the dental school and set up a as well. “Here was a Navy commander standing on foundation that benefited financially from Gordon’s a desk and spouting poetry,” Gross recalls. “It was passion for cycling – he did a cross-country >> ACTIVITIES at PARK: just wonderful.” fundraising ride in 2000 that took 7½ weeks. “I Baseball, football (captain of an enjoyed it so much – I came back to the office and undefeated season), soccer, Another favorite was Herb Mols, the guru of Park said to myself, ‘you know, I’m 69 years old and it’s basketball, Spark, student athletics during the mid-20th century and a 2013 probably time to retire,’” he says. He cut down his government, Latest, chorus, inductee to the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of workday to mornings only, but soon realized he Boys Discussion Club, Class Dance Fame. “If he had 18 people on the baseball squad, wanted more time off. all 18 people played,” Gross says. Gross’s combination of cycling and fundraising >> COLLEGE: “OPPORTUNITY” IS A THEME has helped Roswell Park Cancer Institute as well Oberlin College 1949-51; University at through its Ride For Roswell, which started in Buffalo, 1952; University at Buffalo “It doesn’t sound like much at first,” he says, “but 1996. Gross has raised a total of $233,945 and is Law School, LLB, 1955 we had opportunities to do everything. Whether it the event’s top cumulative fundraiser. was Student Council, working on the newspaper, >> CAREER: or playing on a team, we had encouragement. I’ve KEEPING CLOSE TIES WITH park Senior partner and co-founder of talked to other people from Park, all of whom were successful, and the word ‘opportunity’ resonates Besides being a board member of the Park School of Gross, Shuman, Brizdle, & Gilfillan PC with each of us.” Buffalo Foundation and a member of the Science@ Park Centennial Capital Campaign Committee, >> professional ACTIVITIES: After graduation, Gross entered Oberlin College. Gross has strong family ties to Park. His daughter Chairman, Park School of Buffalo “I was shocked,” he says. “I had earned only one Debra attended the School, and his twin grandsons Foundation; Science@Park ‘A’ at Park, an ‘A-minus’ in one of Herb Mols’ Kyle and Jordan Weiner graduated in 2004. Centennial Capital Campaign science classes. I’d really started to work hard in my Committee; Park School Board of junior and senior years… and I was getting ‘As’ at “The Board, obviously, and Chris Lauricella in Trustees; Roswell Park Cancer Oberlin! We came to college prepared.” particular, have a great vision for the school,” he Institute; Buffalo Philharmonic says. “They’ve got the right ideas. They really are IN BUFFALO AND IN BUSINESS looking to the future and looking at what the needs Orchestra; the Buffalo and Erie are. It’s exciting to see enrollment growing!” County Library Foundation; The During Gross’ second year at college, his father, Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo; who owned a millinery company that was, at the LOOKING AND GIVING BACK Read to Succeed Buffalo; SUNY time, the second largest manufacturer of women’s Board of Trustees; the Investment hats in the country, fell ill and Gross came home to Gross feels he owes a lot of his own progress to his Committee for the University at help. He transferred to the University at Buffalo, formative years at the School. Buffalo Foundation where he became enamored with the history and government faculties, as well as the college’s “Whether I was playing baseball, working on >> select awards: small class sizes. He briefly considered a career Spark, or serving on the Student Council – it really in diplomacy, but a conversation with his father built my self-confidence,” he says. “I always come The Park School Alumni Service steered him in another direction: law school. The back to that word ‘opportunity.’ There were all sorts Award 2009; University of Buffalo family business was paying high fees for legal work. of things that gave us opportunities. They involved Law Alumni Association, If Gordon enrolled in law school for one year, his the students in every phase of the School.” Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1996; dad said, he could learn enough to save the family Samuel P. Capen Award (UB Alumni a small fortune. Gross was accepted to UB Law The Grosses established an endowed scholarship Association), 2010 School, and graduated in three years. fund at Park to support students with financial need. “I feel it is my duty, and that of others who >> hobbies: “I liked it,” he says. “I did very well.” benefited from a Park education, to give back so Bicycling, tennis, golf, gardening, that more of today’s young people can have the same wonderful opportunity.” travel 1 LINDSEY ROSS, MD Class of 2000 Dr. Lindsey Ross earned an undergraduate going to medical school. The actor Denzel Washington and his wife are personally degree at Stanford University, her medical involved in choosing who receives the scholarship. degree at UCLA, and won a prestigious scholarship to study neuroscience at Cedars- The award was a surprise. “I hadn’t narrowed down my field to neuroscience,” she Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She says says. “I didn’t think it was possible that the Washingtons would pick me.” she never would have dreamed of attaining such lofty goals if it had not been for a now- Now back at Cedars-Sinai for her residency, Ross says her career is “challenging.” retired math teacher and college counselor who pushed her to believe in herself. “Residency is a grueling process, especially a neurosurgical training program,” she says. “The time commitment is approximately 80-100 hours per week of patient “Heather Roberts was extremely instrumental care, operating, reading, studying, and writing. The emotional toll of daily death in my college application process,” says requires serious coping skills. Changing and saving lives is extremely gratifying, Ross, who, three years after graduating from though, and I am grateful to have this opportunity.” medical school, is serving her residency at Cedars-Sinai. “She made me believe I was a She adds that neurosurgeons may not always be the smartest people in the room, as strong candidate and encouraged me to apply to places I wouldn’t have dreamed the stereotype has it, “but we sure work the hardest!” of applying to. I honestly feel bad for every other high school student who didn’t have a Heather Roberts. She made sure our college applications were on time and THE LIFE-LONG INFLUENCE OF PARK TEACHERS pristine. She suggested various types of schools and was very good at highlighting our strengths.” Ross says she would not have dreamed she could be a neurosurgeon “if I wasn’t installed at Park as a 13-year-old to free my mind and reach as high as I could FROM THE WEST COAST TO WESTERN NEW YORK imagine.” Ross was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of two physicians, Dr. Lisa Nicholas, Another former Park teacher, Steve Dombrowski, was particularly influential.