"You Should Always Give back more than you take" - Jerry Groswold

The Groswold Endowment Fund, a fund of the Grand Foundation was the wish of our Founder, Jerry Groswold. His desire was to continue the tradition of the Grand Foundation by investing in our community and its nonprofits. In 2016, Jerry Growswold left a matching challenge bequest of $250,000 to support an Endowment Fund for the Grand Foundation.

Jerry Groswold lived his life according to a few basic principles. Take care of your own, family is important, people are important, but things are not, and you should always give back more than you take. It’s the last principle that has truly led to Jerry’s lasting legacy not only as a titan of the ski industry and Winter Park, but also as a community leader and visionary.

At its dedication ceremonies in 1940, Winter Park Ski Area, then a Denver owned mountain park, consisted of only three formal ski trails. Originally designed to allow people to come ski for the day, Winter Park is now the longest continually operated ski resort in the state of Colorado. And, a large part of that is due to Jerry. Jerry was appointed President and CEO of Winter Park, a position he held for over 22 years. During his time, he oversaw one of the largest ski area expansions in Colorado history with the development of the Mary Jane Mountain. He also oversaw the development of the Vasquez and Parsenn expansions, and the master planning for the Winter Park Village.

But, Jerry’s legacy will be forever tied to the creation of programs that gave back more than they took. The first of these was the Winter Park Handicapped Program, which evolved into the National Sports Center for the Disabled. His passion for making the sport of skiing accessible to thousands of people with disabilities is what drove him to become the Team Leader for the first U.S. Disabled Olympics team to compete in the 1980 Winter Paralympics.

Jerry’s generosity didn’t stop there. In 1996, he helped found the Grand Foundation. The foundation was created to improve the quality of community in Grand County by providing funding for non-profits and their programs. Today, the Grand Foundation aims to raise a minimum of $250,000, in order to receive Jerry's match, for a total of $500,000 to sustain the Grand Foundation for future generations.