Howard Grossman’s Desire to Help Future Students

“Grandpa Howard” receives gift from students at Holiday time.

Howard Grossman, B.S.’77, knows the importance of a good education, which is why he has long supported the University at Albany Foundation and has named the University in his will—establishing a named scholarship to give tomorrow’s students the resources they will need to excel.

Originally from Rochester, Howard chose to attend the University at Albany because it was close to home and had a good reputation. He wanted to be a teacher, but his parents urged him to pursue law, medicine, or accounting—and “for some reason,” he says, “I listened.” He picked law and, after earning his law degree at the University at Buffalo, enjoyed a 36-year career, mostly with JP Morgan Chase. He retired in 2016 to turn his attention to his local community and to do something “values-based.”

It didn’t take long for Howard to find a calling. In 2017 he co-founded Pencils & Paper, a Jewish Family Services of Rochester program that operates a no-cost store where teachers select school supplies for their students. Rochester’s graduation rate is among the lowest in New York, and half of the city’s children live in poverty, Grossman notes.

“I was amazed at the need in our community,” Grossman said in a 2018 interview about the program. “If a kid doesn’t have a pencil or a crayon, it’s really hard to learn. And if parents can’t put food on the table and pay the rent, it’s really hard to buy school supplies.”

With Howard at the helm, Paper & Pencils grew dramatically—reaching more than 60 schools and serving tens of thousands of students annually in Rochester’s neediest areas by 2019. During COVID, Howard became a “Zoom grandparent.” He was connected to a student who liked to read. Howard started sending him books via Amazon that they both read and discussed weekly on Zoom. Over this past summer, the two began to meet weekly in person in the school library. “At one point another boy showed up at the table two weeks in a row, and suddenly our reading group became three!”

Helping to educate young people is behind Howard’s decision to support the University at Albany through annual giving and the establishment of a named scholarship. He was partly inspired to create the scholarship after mentoring the two young Rochester students who loved to read. His planned gift and the establishment of a named scholarship is a perfect way to continue making a positive impact, he says.

Howard notes he is grateful to the staff at the Foundation, saying they were easy to work with in making his scholarship a reality. Charitable work has been a “labor of love,” Grossman says. “It’s nice to be making a difference in an encore career.”