Charlotte Gross ’73, PhD, ’85 GSAS

My family and I will always remember how Barnard generously admitted my mother, Henriette Marcus (Gross) ’36 MD, when she came to New York as a Jewish refugee from Germany. As she used to tell the story to my brother, Charles M. Gross MD, and me, she brought her Gymnasium (German high school) certificate to Barnard interview and was admitted to the College as a junior with a full scholarship.

Majoring in chemistry, my mother went on to study at NYU Medical School, where she met and married my father, Stanley Gross MD. My mother, a pulmonologist, worked in Westchester and the Bronx to end tuberculosis; my father, a pathologist, was Director of Laboratories at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

Much later, Barnard also welcomed me when I entered the College as a transfer student in 1971. My wonderful adviser, Eleanor Tilton (English), encouraged me to pursue graduate work at Columbia. “An education in the humanities is always valuable,” she said. I went on to enjoy teaching medieval literature to undergraduates and graduate students at Susquehanna University and North Carolina State University.

In endowing a scholarship in memory of my parents, I want to express my family’s enduring gratitude to Barnard. It’s a pleasure and privilege to support the College’s mission to educate and empower women.

Charlotte Gross ’73, PhD, Columbia GSAS ‘85