Gordon R. Gross ’55

Gordon Gross grew up on Winston Road. His father was a millinery manufacturer and his mother was a homemaker. Going to college was a given. He went to the Park School and started at Oberlin College, but transferred to UB during his sophomore year, majoring in history and government. He loved the History Department. His father, and a good friend, thought they paid too much in legal fees and said he should go to law school.

Justice Philip Halpern, who had been his father’s attorney, was in the Appellate Division at the time. He told Gross’ father that if he were going to practice law in Buffalo, UB Law would be an excellent choice. He originally wanted to go to Yale but would have had to spend an additional year as an undergraduate. That made Gross decide to go to UB Law.

He didn’t have any expectation of law school, but once there, he enjoyed it. “You could relate to businesspeople.” At that time, the law school was on West Eagle Street in downtown Buffalo. Gross lived in North Buffalo. He got married about halfway through school. There were 144 students in his class when he began, and he graduated with about 75. He felt a close camaraderie with his classmates, playing cards in the basement and talking over homework assignments.

Gross said he and his classmates had a close relationship with their professors. Jacob Hyman was dean and taught Constitutional Law. Clyde Summers, who taught Torts, was dynamic. Laidlaw was particularly good. He taught Contracts. All the full-time teachers were highly effective. It was harder to learn from the part-time professors because they weren’t around after classes.

Gross believes it’s hard to fully correlate success as a law student with success in law practice. There’s a certain amount, but some people in his class had to work long hours to earn their way through school, so while they finished at the bottom of the class, they turned out to be successful lawyers. But there is a correlation.

Gross said the law school prepared him well. During the summers he sold incinerators, pots and pans, and Cutco knives. In retrospect it was a good thing to do. He had gone into military service right after he took the bar exam, and with six months left he was offered a job at $75 a week—big money then. The firm was Borins & Snitzer. “My greatest professional achievement was surviving.”

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.

Born April 14, 1931—Died March 25, 2019