Jenard M. Gross

Jenard Gross was born in 1929 in Nashville, Tennessee. His father owned a small grocery store there, but when the Great Depression hit three weeks after Gross' birth, his father was forced to close the store. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Gross' father spent the next four years working as a truck driver. In 1934, the family moved back to Tennessee, and his father opened a new store in a small town called Dupontonia, which was named in honor of the DuPont rayon plant nearby.

For several years, the Gross family lived in a rented triplex. "We were fortunate during the Depression, because running a grocery store always meant we had food," says Gross. "But money was still tight. In 1938, when I was nine years old, my father was doing well enough that he bought a house for us. His payment on a $4,000 house was $19 a month, and that wasn't always easy to make. But in those days, everyone trusted each other. Men would come by and knock on the door to see if my mother had any chores they could do for a meal. She would always fix them soup or eggs. We never locked our doors, and we left the keys in the car. It was completely different than it is today."

Gross started working at an early age. He cut grass and sold magazine subscriptions for The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, and Ladies' Home Journal. During World War II, which started when Gross was in the eighth grade, he planted a victory garden. The family raised chickens, and Gross sold eggs to neighbors. At the age of 13, he began selling women's shoes on Saturdays. He earned on average $5 a day, but he was able to triple that amount during the holidays, even saving enough to buy a $35 suit for his bar mitzvah.

His father eventually closed the grocery store and took a night course at the local high school to learn sheet metal work. Throughout the war, his father helped to build dive bombers at Vultee Aircraft Corp. Later, he worked in a filling station, and eventually he went back to running a small grocery store.

Meanwhile, Gross was an honor student and the sports editor of his school newspaper. He graduated near the top of his class and enrolled at Vanderbilt University. "No one in my family had ever been to college," he says. "When I was in the tenth grade, I had to make a decision about working half time and going to school half time. Many boys in my town did that. But I knew if I did I wouldn't have enough credits to go to college. I felt I would be better off with a college education, so I decided then to pursue that as a goal."

While in college, Gross continued to live at home, working on weekends and throughout each summer to pay for his expenses. To save money, he increased his class load, graduated magna cum laude with a degree in psychology, and joined Phi Beta Kappa. He also managed to save $1,200 during his college years.

Upon graduation in 1950, Gross went to work for a local furniture company. The following year, he moved to Kansas City for a sales job in medical equipment. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1953 and was stationed in New Jersey. During this time, he played the stock market and accumulated more than $20,000 by the time he was honorably discharged from military service.

Interested in real estate investment, Gross bought two lots slated for small apartment buildings. When he discovered that he could not afford the estimates he was given to construct an eight-unit building, he decided to build it himself. He paid an architect $400 to come by each day and supervise his work. After successfully developing his two lots, Gross was in business as a developer. In fact, he became one of Houston's most recognized apartment developers and over the years has built nearly 24,000 apartment units and rehabbed another 4,500 units.

"I was lucky," says Gross. "Real estate development is something I just stumbled into and thoroughly loved. There is something wonderful about seeing a piece of dirt and getting out there and visualizing something rising out of the ground. When you see the lights come on and people living in your buildings, there is great professional satisfaction. I believe that if you love what you are doing, you will be successful. I never felt like I was getting up in the morning to go to work. I think that if I talked with someone who is in a job he can barely tolerate, my advice would be to do something else, even if he is making a lot of money at it. Find the thing you can't live without, and then stay with it."

When asked how he defines success, Gross says, "First, I think it's having a good family life, and the high point of my life was when I married Dr. Gail Gross. We have been blessed with our son, Shawn, and his wife, Kate, and our delightful grandchildren. After that, I think success can be defined as having a good economic life, a good social life, and a way of reaching back and helping others to have the opportunities that I was given. For me, that's what life is all about, giving others a chance to do what you have done and, most important, getting a good education."

Gross believes this country offers young people more opportunities today than ever before. "The greatest days for America are still ahead of us," he says. "When I was a kid in the Depression, they used to say that America would never have as many opportunities as we'd had before the Depression. But those who believed that were wrong. I believe that providing opportunities for the next generation is one of the greatest things we can do for our country. But we must have a well-educated society to stay on top. That's why this Horatio Alger Award means so much to me. This is a group of like-minded people who focus on education and supporting those who have ability but need help. The scholarships give them the opportunity to succeed, and then we all benefit from what these young people will choose to do with that education. It's exciting and motivating."

Gross has been active in real estate for more than 50 years as president of Gross Builders, Inc. and a number of related entities. He was also chairman and CEO of United Savings Association of Texas, the state's largest savings and loan, as well as chairman of Gulf Coast Savings Association. He has served on the board of several entities including Weingarten Realty Investment Trust, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange; Delta Lloyds Insurance Company; and the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas for six years.

In addition, Gross was president and chairman of the Houston Grand Opera and director of both the Houston Symphony and the Salvation Army. He was treasurer for the San Jacinto Girl Scouts Council, president of the U.S. Friends of English National Opera, and president of Westwood Country Club. He is a trustee of the Pauline Stearne Wolff Memorial Foundation. He served on the executive committee of the Greater Houston Partnership, chairing both its economic and education policy committees. He served on the board of the Houston Annenberg Challenge. He was a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and the World Business Council. He also served as president of the Houston Apartment Association as well as the National Apartment Association.

Gross chaired the University of Texas Health Science Center Development Board and served on the board of the school's MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as the Houston Annenberg Challenge. In addition, he chaired the boards of both the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and the Texas Southern University Foundation, the nation's largest African-American university, and sat on the school's board of regents. Gross co-founded the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association of Greater Houston as well as its scholarship program, currently the nation's largest.

In 2001, the Houston Independent School District honored Gross by naming a local elementary school after him, in recognition of his commitment to the preservation and improvement of urban school systems, as well as for his contribution to education.