Joe Gruenberg’s 40-Year support for Wright State celebrated with Honorary Alumnus Award

Students living on and around Wright State University’s Dayton Campus have Jonas “Joe” Gruenberg to thank.

Gruenberg began his 40-year association with Wright State while representing a developer who constructed and managed what would become the university’s campus housing, including dormitories and apartment-style housing.

“In the mid-1980s, there was a push to build housing so there would be an on-campus population of students,” he recalled.

And while many students today continue to commute to class, far more live on campus or within walking distance than was the case several decades ago.

Gruenberg’s path to Wright State was rather circuitous and hardly traditional.

Born in Poland, he emigrated to Knoxville, Tennessee, after living with his parents in a displaced-person camp in his native country.

Gruenberg prospered after settling in the United States, receiving an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and a law degree from Vanderbilt University.

Forty years after helping build the first on-campus housing at Wright State, Joe Gruenberg continues to support the university.

Along with his wife and two children, Gruenberg moved to Dayton in 1970 when he joined a law firm today known as Coolidge Wall. As a legal practitioner for 53 years, he worked closely with a divergent group of real estate developers, business owners and investors in the areas of real estate, business, estate planning, financing and succession planning.

Inspired by his father and brother – both of whom are psychiatrists – Gruenberg served on the Wright State School of Psychology Advisory Board from 2003 to 2013. He was also a member of the Wright State University Foundation Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2015, chairing its development committee for three years.

He continues to support the Wright State Foundation Scholarship fund and regularly attends Wright State Theatre productions.

“There are a lot of hidden gems at Wright State that you don’t know about,” said Gruenberg. “Wright State University provides a very credible education. The university’s goal is to help students thrive and they go a long way in achieving that.”

More than 40 years after having first stepped foot on campus, Gruenberg received the 2025 Honorary Alumnus Award from the Wright State Alumni Association.

“Anytime people feel that you’ve contributed something to an important cause . . . it’s very satisfying,” he said. “It means so much to me to be appreciated by somebody.”

In addition to Wright State, Gruenberg is affiliated with many organizations with a focus on the arts, social services and economic development in the Greater Dayton community.

Although he’s retired, he remains active on several community and business boards while also serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence with the Dayton Entrepreneur Center, mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, including a number of Wright State grads.

Married for 59 years, Gruenberg and his wife have two children and seven grandchildren, one of whom is a Wright State alum who returned to pursue a master’s degree.