Gary R. and Niety Gerson value the importance of Jewish education in secular institutions and are pleased to benefit the cause and his alma mater by sponsoring outstanding renowned lecturers. Gerson, founder and senior partner of Gerson Preston Robinson & Company, has achieved success through talent, hard work and an unwavering commitment to his profession, colleagues, clients and community. He graduated with high honors from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1954. The following year he earned his master’s degree in business administration, also from UF, and at age 21, was the youngest CPA in the country at the time.

Having received a U.S. Navy Commission in 1955, he was appointed officer in charge of the Navy Area Audit Office in Orlando. Two years later, he began practicing public accounting in South Florida, with the formation of what is now Gerson Preston Robinson & Company. The University dedicated the first academic building in the country built solely to house a school of accounting as Gary R. Gerson Hall.