“I said no, but I will make ten calls and get you $10,000,” he recalls. Peter made the calls, raised $15,000 and together with a six-time match helped build two houses in Indiantown. The couple went on to underwrite Stan the Man, the first programmable diagnostic mannequin for the nurse training program at Martin Health and then to fund the groundbreaking (IMEP) Integrated Memory Enhancement Program at the Kane Center, both projects on the leading edge of healthcare.

How Peter went from an immigrant child arriving in America in 1939, speaking no English, to Cornell graduate, Air Force jet pilot, management consultant, senior partner at executive search firm Nordeman Grimm, and then philanthropist is a classic American success story, right down to marrying Gayle, his childhood sweetheart.

At six years old, Peter’s life in America started in a small walk-up apartment on Chicago’s South Side. “My father had two jobs and my mother had one.  My grandmother lived with us and slept in the living room. I slept in the kitchen,” he said.

Surrounded by a strong work ethic and respect for education, his father never missed an opportunity to reinforce the value of earning money. “When I discovered chewing gum, I asked my father for money to buy some,” Peter said. My father replied, “I will help you earn it; you can shine my shoes.”  The lesson was not lost on him. Peter washed pots and pans, tutored, and ran a laundry concession to help pay expenses at Cornell.

Peter describes his years in the Air Force as formative. He said that flying single engine jets, once you get over the fear factor, helps one to distill information and think fast: skills that would serve him well in his career. Over the years when Peter found himself competing against people with advanced degrees and/or more experience, “the Air Force helped me to develop the confidence to punch above my weight,” he said.

In an era of great challenges, 2020 can be remembered as the birth year of the Forever Fund for the Common Good that Peter and Gayle Grimm endowed to meet the challenges our community will face, whatever they may be.

“It makes us happy to know that others will have the opportunity to join with us in our quest to care for our community now and in the future.”  –  Peter and Gayle Grimm