Finance Executive Killed by Cyclist Recalled in Foundation Gala
Nancy Gruskin, founder of the Stuart C. Gruskin Family Foundation. She is holding a fundraiser tonight at Manhattan's City Winery to honor the memory of her husband. Stuart Gruskin, a Valuation Research Corp. senior vice president, was killed in 2009 when a delivery cyclist struck him. Photographer: Patrick Cole/Bloomberg
Stuart Gruskin saw his wife and twin daughters for the last time at their Westfield, New Jersey, home one workday morning two years ago.
He commuted to his job as a senior vice president at Manhattan advisory firm Valuation Research Corp. and was run down at lunchtime by a man delivering food on a bicycle. Gruskin died a few days later at age 50 from brain injuries.
“The delivery cyclist was driving the wrong way,” said Nancy Gruskin, his wife, in an interview at Bloomberg News headquarters in Manhattan.
About a year later she started the Stuart C. Gruskin Family Foundation in his memory, and tonight the organization will hold its inaugural fundraiser at City Winery in Manhattan. Entertainment will be the Rick Cantor Band, which covers classic rock-and-roll hits and is led by one of the family’s Westfield neighbors.
New York City Council member Rosie Mendez will be honored with the foundation’s 2011 Visionary Award. Mendez introduced a bill that became law this year requiring the city to compile bicycle-on-pedestrian incidents.
George C. Matthews, an executive at Eurohypo AG in New York, also will be honored with the foundation’s Community Impact Award for helping it promote its bicycle-safety campaign.
A 2010 study by the New York City Department of Transportation showed that while pedestrians accounted for 52 percent of traffic fatalities from 2005 to 2009, it’s unknown how many died from collisions with cyclists.
“I feel like his death was not in vain,” Gruskin said. “He was a person who would help others, and this is a way to carry on his name.”
Safety Rules
The nonprofit has launched a program called 5 to Ride.org to encourage restaurants to educate their delivery workers about bicycle safety rules. They include stopping at every red light, riding in the same direction as traffic, staying off the sidewalk and staying in one lane.
About 50 businesses have signed the pledge, including The Odeon in Tribeca, Landmarc, Dorian’s Seafood Market on the Upper East Side and ‘Wichcraft’s 13 locations in New York. Gruskin is also working with SeamlessWeb.com, a network of 6,500 restaurants in the U.S. and in London that employ delivery and takeout workers, to adopt the 5 to Ride.org principles.
“We hope that eventually we will have 1,000 restaurants that will adopt this,” Gruskin said. “We hope to take this nationally, but one step at a time.”
(The Stuart C. Gruskin Family Foundation’s 2011 Inaugural Fundraising Gala is tonight at City Winery, 155 Varick St. in Manhattan, from 6 to 10. Tickets are $150 in advance, or $175 at the door. Information: +1-646-278-6727 or http://gruskinfoundation.org/fundraiser)
To contact the writer on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at pcole3@Bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page