Sally and Bob Gries to Receive Cleveland Play House Centennial Star Award
Posted April 12, 2017 in Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Ed Gilchrist
egilchrist@clevelandplayhouse.com
(216) 400-7020
Sally and Bob Gries to Receive
Cleveland Play House Centennial Star Award
CLEVELAND, OH (April 12, 2017) Cleveland Play House (CPH) today announced that Sally and Bob Gries will receive the CPH Centennial Star Award for their longtime contributions to Cleveland Play House. The philanthropists will be honored at this year’s benefit, Grand Illusion: A Magical Odyssey, for which they are Honorary Chairs. Sally and Bob are theatre patrons and arts advocates of the highest degree, and CPH is grateful for their steadfast support and unparalleled generosity.
“Sally and Bob Gries have been ardent supporters of CPH for many years,” says CPH Managing Director Kevin Moore. “We are a better organization because of their leadership, generosity, and wise counsel, and could not be more proud to honor them with the CPH Centennial Star Award for 2017.”
The CPH Centennial Star Award was established in 2012 to recognize and honor select individuals who have made invaluable contributions to CPH’s rich legacy. Past recipients include Joel Grey, Roe Green, Thomas Zenty III, Barbara Snyder, Eric Gordon, Beth Mooney, and Alec Pendleton.
Grand Illusion: A Magical Odyssey will take place on Saturday, June 3, 2017 in the Allen Theatre Complex at Playhouse Square. Guests will join Event Co-Chairs Rick Knapp and Kathy Hogg on a journey through transformed spaces to exotic locales lush with theatrical magic. The annual benefit is CPH’s signature fundraising event, and all proceeds help support their nationally recognized artistic productions and groundbreaking educational programs. The evening will include cocktails, live entertainment, dinner, and dancing.
Please direct corporate sponsorship inquiries to Geoff Masten at 216.400.7037 or gmasten@clevelandplayhouse.com. For all other questions, contact Jason Bogdany at 216.400.7056 or jbogdany@clevelandplayhouse.com.
SALLY GRIES is the founder and chairperson of Gries Financial LLC, a firm that provides investment and financial advisory services to high net worth individuals, foundations, endowments, and retirement plans. Ms. Gries is a founder and chairperson of Fieldstone Associates Inc., a real estate investment advisory firm that advises on private real estate investments for the benefit of its clients. She is a member of PIMCO’s RIA Investment Advisory Board. An avid reader of Wall Street Journal as a young teenager, she entered the male-dominated financial field in the late ‘60s after graduating from Northwestern University. A decade later she started her own company. She has the distinction of being the founder of the first female-owned money management and financial planning firm in Ohio. Her involvement in the community has been extensive over the years. Currently, Sally is a trustee of The Cleveland Foundation, Holden Forests and Gardens, and the Gries Family Foundation. She is a Life Trustee of Hawken School and Emeritus Trustee of Case Western Reserve University. She is an investment committee member of several large institutions and chairs of two of them. She has been a frequent speaker on investment management and financial planning, along with radio and television appearances. Sally lives in Shaker Heights with her husband, Bob.
BOB GRIES, a fifth-generation Clevelander, spent 30 years as a venture capitalist and 50 years involved with the Cleveland Browns. He is passionate about philanthropy and is affiliated with dozens of Cleveland’s nonprofit and civic organizations. He is an endurance athlete who in the past three and a half decades completed 105 adventures in 43 countries on every continent, which include ultramarathons, multi-day desert races, high-altitude mountain climbs, and biking trips up to 1,500 miles long. Bob is a Yale graduate. He lives with his wife Sally in Shaker Heights with six of their seven grandchildren nearby. Bob is the author of Five Generations, a book of Cleveland history since the 1830s when his family first arrived in our city.
Cleveland Play House, recipient of the 2015 Regional Theatre Tony Award® and founded in 1915, is America’s first professional regional theatre. Throughout its rich history, CPH has remained dedicated to its mission to inspire, stimulate, and entertain diverse audiences in Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. CPH has produced more than 100 world and/or American premieres, and over its long history more than 12 million people have attended over 1,600 productions. Today, Cleveland Play House celebrates the beginning of its second century of service while performing in three state-of-the-art venues at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Cleveland Play House with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. We also thank the residents of Cuyahoga County for supporting Cleveland Play House through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
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