Greenberg Family Continues Decades—Long Support of Whitman School Through Whitman Leadership Circle

On any given day, you might find Gary S. Greenberg ’72 wearing his Syracuse University T-shirt as he heads to the gym near his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. After many years in business, he and his wife, Joan, are enjoying retirement, but his connection to the University and the Whitman School has remained strong.

Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, Greenberg “was lucky enough to get into Syracuse,” he says, choosing to study political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “It turned out to be the best four years of my life.”

Greenberg went on to attend law school at Southwestern University, and, after practicing law for a few years, joined his family business, Birken Manufacturing. A third-generation company, Birken was a high-performance supplier of aeroengine components to manufacturers like Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and GE Aviation. Greenberg eventually took over as president and CEO until the company was acquired in 2021 by aerospace company Enjet Aero.

“My whole career revolved around business, even though I didn’t actually go to the business school. But, I still participated in some of the competitions and especially loved Whitman’s entrepreneurial spirit,” he says of the reason some of his giving has been directed to the Whitman School of Management over the years.

Most recently, the Greenbergs joined the newly-established Whitman Leadership Circle with a contribution to the Whitman School of Management Capital Fund. Thanks to this generosity, a designated space in the Whitman School will now be known as the Gary S. Greenberg ’72 Student Club Room.

This particular gift also includes designations  for other initiatives at the University, including the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship’s Visiting Fellow Fund, of which he was a founder; the John A. Lally Athletics Complex, which will include a named space in the new football performance center; and continued support of the Todd S. Greenberg memorial Scholarship at Whitman, which he and his brother Glen Greenberg ’70, a graduate of the Whitman School, established in 1991 in memory of their late brother to provide scholarships and financial assistance to an undergraduate student at the Whitman School.

In 2006, Gary, Glen and their sister, Miriam, gave a generous gift to the Whitman School of Management Capital Fund, part of the Whitman Higher Ground Campaign. That gift supported a named 50-seat classroom on the concourse level of the building in honor of their parents, Sidney and Beatrice Greenberg.

The Greenbergs have been generous supporters of the Whitman School and the University for decades, and their support has helped further Whitman’s ability to continue to provide an outstanding education for its students.

“My career turned out as good as I could have imagined, and we were able to grow the family business, thanks, in part, to the education I received at Syracuse University,” Greenberg says. “Today, I’m very happy in my retirement, and I am also pleased to continue my connection to Syracuse University and show my support to various aspects that are meaningful to me—and that includes the Whitman School.”