Philanthropy: Committing to Change

Skip Sack and Gulf Coast Community Foundation

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | Photo by Nancy Guth
February 2021

While Burton M. “Skip” Sack is one of the most enthusiastic philanthropists in our community, he never expected to be in a position to be able to help so many because his own beginnings were so humble. 

In 1951, he landed his first real job—as a Howard Johnson’s dishwasher. “I absolutely loved it,” he admits, which explains why he worked there every day after school and on weekends. Each summer, he shifted to working there fulltime. “My goal in life? To be a Howard Johnson’s manager.”

That plan was curtailed because of the Korean Crisis—Skip quite literally quit high school to join the Marines. “Under Massachusetts law,” he says, “if you completed your first semester of your senior year and had passing grades, you could earn your diploma if you joined the military within thirty days, which I did.” But he quickly learned the power of upward career mobility when he was stationed at Camp Ushur in Quantico, VA, where officers came to train.

“I was one of 130 enlisted men around 800 second lieutenants. By nighttime, my arm felt like falling off, I was saluting so much,” he says. Something else he quickly noticed was that officers lived two to a room while Skip shared a squad bay with 65 others. All that helped Skip realize that he wanted—not wanted, but needed, he corrects himself—to go to college. So, he fired off a host of applications. He literally got the acceptance letter from Cornell University the day he went to the post office to change his address and be discharged from the military in the morning. Five days later, he started in Cornell’s first-rate hotel and restaurant program.

In the late 1950s, Cornell’s tuition was a mere $600 a semester, but Skip still wouldn’t have been able to afford it without the unexpected generosity of others. “I received a scholarship for $500, and another for $750, plus a grant for $500, which was extremely helpful since that covered tuition and living expenses.” This proved to be a vital early lesson in generosity for him.

The lesson about the importance of helping out others? It stuck. 

Skip graduated in 1961 and was earning $6,500 a year, but he committed to giving $750 to $1,000 a year to charities in the greater Boston area. And after his decades-long career as a restaurateur went exceptionally well—he received a lot of stock options when the corporate office bought back all the high-performing Applebee’s he owned and ran—Skip retired to Sarasota and eagerly sought ways to give back. That’s when he partnered with Gulf Coast Community Foundation. 

“They’re terrific partners,” Skip says. “They do a great job vetting potential charities when I’m interested in something. And they also bring me opportunities about organizations with a need and then carefully explain why I should consider making a contribution, which I usually do.”

Gulf Coast Community Foundation helps Skip and his wife, Gail, find ways to support the two main areas of their philanthropy—the homeless and the hungry. “Especially veterans,” clarifies Skip. His firsthand experience with the hard, often-thankless work the military does stays with him. That’s why he gives so much to support Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Harvest House, as well as JFCS of the Suncoast and its military assistance program. “Our veterans should be taken better care of, but since that’s not happening, I’m doing what I can to help,” he says.

As to why Skip retired to Sarasota versus other warm-weather options, he has a simple answer. “There’s no place I’d rather live than Sarasota,” Skip says with a laugh. “I’m from Boston, so I always thought I’d retire to the East Coast where all my friends retired to. But I came here and it’s just a whole different world.” They checked out Sarasota because his mother-in-law lived here, as did his grandmother. From the start, Skip and Gail fell in love with the area.

“It’s such a beautiful place, and the people are simply wonderful,” Skip says. “Plus there are more arts opportunities here than anywhere else in Florida. And this is such a philanthropic community, too. I look at Graci and Dennis McGillicuddy—they’re an amazing couple who donate so much money and so many hours of their time. We think the world of them. They’re true role models for us.”

Skip also is a supporter of the arts. “This community, to have a world-class orchestra like we do, to have a world-class ballet? It’s just mind-blowing. We see every play at the Asolo Theatre. The acting is just extraordinary. Every time we go, we try to bring another couple with us to expose them to it.” 

You can’t be a successful restaurant owner without incredible attention to detail, and Skip brings that to his philanthropy, too. To better understand what a food bank was and how it worked, he accepted an invitation from All Faiths Food Bank CEO Sandra Frank to see their biweekly veterans’ pantry. “I went by around 9 am and was stunned to see 100 people waiting in line,” Skip explains. He asked Frank if the long line was because the food bank might run out of food each day. She explained that wasn’t the case, but they chose to come early just for the chance to talk with people in the same position they’re in.

Hearing and seeing the plight of area veterans really got to Skip. “They come with suitcases, wheeled carts, and trash barrels on wheels. Then they take home two weeks of food—about 72 pounds on average,” he says. “I watched one man fill up a trash barrel on wheels, then roll it to the bus stop at the end of the street, and drag this huge container of food up onto the bus. It’s amazing.”

Skip does more than just support individual causes and organizations. He’s also working to ensure his family has a legacy of giving. “Gulf Coast helped me set up foundations for each of our five kids so they could get involved and give them the opportunity to make donations of their own to people and organizations in need.”

By any measure, Skip has been successful in his work and his philanthropy. His idea on success is this—it comes from a confluence of three things: talent, luck, and timing. Talent alone won’t get your where you want to be. “I’ve been the beneficiary of all three of those.” But even so, he admits “I wish I had more money.” Not to hoard or satisfy his ego, but to give away. 

“I marvel at people like MacKenzie Bezos,” he says. “She gave $4 billion in the past few months alone? That’s incredible, but the need is still so great. I wish we could all do more.”

While Skip never became a Howard Johnson’s manager, he’s made peace with that. With the help of Gulf Coast community Foundation, he’s instead found his true calling—finding a way to change our community for the better, one life at a time.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, please visit www.gulfcoastcf.org or call 941.486.4600.