A gift for ocean research

Steven Grossman spent his career in the packaging industry, dedicating his time outside of work to his family and their shared passion: boating. For more than two decades, they spent weeks at a time on their 117-foot vessel Arcadia, logging more than 100,000 nautical miles worldwide. Their capstone voyage took them through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic, though Grossman considers coastal Greenland and Scotland’s remote archipelago St. Kilda among their most memorable destinations.

Ultimately, these experiences helped to shape Grossman’s perspective on the importance of protecting and studying the ocean.

“The inlets, the sands, the bays, the rivers, the streams—these are the quiet and powerful connections to the ocean that I have always found so beautiful,” Grossman says. “To see any of those components decimated by sewage or plastic or through global warming just doesn’t sit right with me. I want to do what I can to help.”

This summer, the Grossman Family Foundation gave WHOI a $10 million gift to develop the Grossman Catalyst Fund, providing seed funding for innovative oceanographic research and technology projects across the Institution. The grant program will fund research projects that have a strong likelihood of winning additional philanthropic or government support, says Sam Harp, WHOI’s vice president for advancement and marketing. The first grants will be issued early next year.

“The inlets, the sands, the bays, the rivers, the streams—these are the quiet and powerful connections to the ocean.”
—Steven Grossman

During the last decade, Grossman, along with his wife Teresa Pickman and Steven’s sons Ethan and Leslie Grossman, have also provided gifts through their foundation in support of projects at WHOI including coral reef studies and Arctic research. He initially learned about the work of WHOI scientists and engineers from stories highlighted in the Institution’s print magazine, Oceanus.

“I read it, I found it fascinating, and I presented WHOI’s research to our foundation as a possible future bequest option,” he says.

Grossman was born in Brooklyn in 1939. He later moved with his family to the south shore of Long Island, where his sea-loving father purchased a boat. As a teenager in the 1950s, “whenever I had a free chance, I would go to Freeport Point Shipyard, where they built wooden boats,” Grossman says. He graduated from the University of Vermont and in the 1960s joined his family’s business, Southern Container Company, a U.S. custom corrugated packaging and paperboard business started in 1904 by his grandfather. In 1987, Grossman became the company’s CEO.

Now semi-retired, Grossman remains focused on his philanthropic foundation. He also continues to spend days enjoying the ocean. In August, he and his wife took ownership of a 39-foot sailboat they named Wisp, which they plan to use for day trips from their seaside Connecticut home.