In memoriam: Betsy Shure Gross

In memoriam: Betsy Shure Gross

Betsy Shure Gross, a Mass Parks for All board member and lifelong public parks advocate, died at home in Davis, CA, on July 15. She was 85.

Betsy was a founding member of MPA, which she continued to support in both word and deed even after moving from Brookline to California in 2015 with her husband, Gary Gross, to be nearer to family. Being 3,000 miles away had absolutely no impact on her effectiveness or passion for the local issues she devoted her life to. 

Among her myriad accomplishments, Betsy was a driving force behind the $92 million federal and state funded Muddy River Restoration Project, and a leader in what has been termed the (Frederick Law) Olmsted Renaissance, a wave of park restoration projects across the country. She achieved this status by convincing the public that natural preservation and economic equity could work together. 

As a devotee of Olmsted, in 1980 she co-founded the National Association for Olmsted Parks (NAOP), now known as the Olmsted Network, and worked with Corliss Knapp Engle to secure National Park status for Fairsted, the Olmsted family home in Brookline. Together, they shared the Boston Bowl for Civic Improvement Award issued by The Garden Club of America’s Boston Committee. 

Betsy also was a linchpin in the fight to protect open space, historic sites, and affordable housing in Massachusetts, helping to craft and pass the Community Preservation Act (CPA), signed into law in 2000. Since that time, 201 of the state’s 351 cities and towns have adopted CPA, a local option smart growth law. In the early 2000’s, she worked at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) as an assistant secretary to then Sec. Bob Durand. She later became the Executive Director of EEA’s Office of Public-Private Partnerships.

In Brookline, Betsy chaired the Town Conservation Commission, was co-president of the Friends of Hall’s Pond, and the advisor to Brookline’s Greenspace Alliance. Erin Chute, Brookline’s commissioner of public works said that Betsy, “...used every ounce of her energy to protect the places we now treasure.” Chute went on to say that Betsy, …didn’t just dream, she rolled up her sleeves. She went to meetings, walked the sites, wrote the letters, built the coalitions.” 

Here is how she once described the cause she devoted her life to: 

"In the 19th Century, and now, public parks represent Democracy in Dirt. They

are, perhaps, the last resource in our country which belongs to everyone - they

are held in trust by public agencies, but they belong, in truth, to the public. No

exceptions. Everybody."

She was a fierce, loyal, committed colleague, and role model, as well as a wonderful and funny friend who built a lasting legacy and a long list of us who will sorely miss her for the rest of our days. On a personal level, as the press secretary at EEA from 2000 to 2003, I can attest to the fact that the last place you wanted to find yourself was across the table from Betsy, opposing something she wanted to accomplish.  

For the parks she preserved and the buildings that were not erected in them, we are forever grateful.

Doug Pizzi is executive director of Mass Parks for All