Gregory Summers

The Brooklyn native attended Catholic schools through his graduation from Fordham in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Summers ultimately opted for a career on Wall Street, where he has worked for several firms over the last 30 years. The idea to establish a scholarship at Seton Hall came in 2007 at a steakhouse outside Fort Benning, Ga., where Summers had taken his son, Greg Jr., and a dozen friends, to celebrate their graduation from U.S. Army Airborne Training. Greg Jr. had graduated from Seton Hall in 2005 and put his career on hold to join the Army. (He eventually served in Iraq and Kuwait and later returned to Seton Hall to earn master’s degrees in diplomacy and business. His brother, Frank, also earned a master’s in business from Seton Hall.) That desire led to a scholarship at Seton Hall that earmarks $80,000 from the Summers Family Foundation for post-9/11 military veterans and first responders, or their children. “The heroism and sacrifice of those first responders were truly inspiring,” says Summers, a managing partner at Chartwell Trading, a multi-strategy hedge fund. The foundation has set up similar scholarships at Fordham and Georgetown universities. It also helps support soup kitchens in Newark and Morristown.