By Kara Baskin and Greg Gatlin
Each time Ken Gear, BSBA ’89, JD ’95, returns to Suffolk and talks with students—and he returns more often than most—it is, he says, like looking in the mirror.
“Because that was me just 30 years ago—or almost 40 years now, I guess,” he laughs.
Gear sees students energized by learning in the heart of the city. They’re “gritty,” he says, in the most positive sense of the word. He sees students who are working incredibly hard to better themselves. And he sees an institution that is helping them get there. “I think that’s what makes Suffolk special,” he says.
Gear is a champion for upward mobility—literally. He is chief executive of Leading Builders of America, a trade association representing many of the nation’s largest home builders and real estate developers, with a mission of preserving home affordability for families.
Return to Table of Contents
Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
“Our most pressing issue is what I call attainable housing,” Gear explains. “It’s people at the lower- to middle-class level who simply cannot afford a house. Getting those people to experience the American dream of owning a home—it really does change lives.”
Gear brings that same focus on upward mobility to Suffolk, an institution with a mission that he describes as “unlike any other in higher education.” A first-generation graduate himself, he understands firsthand the life-changing impact of educational opportunity, particularly for students from working-class or less-privileged backgrounds.
A proud double Ram, Gear is one of the University’s most engaged alumni leaders, an active volunteer, and an unflagging philanthropic supporter. Since 2020, he has brought his considerable expertise to the University’s Board of Trustees as the Law School’s alumni trustee, a term he will complete this June. He’s a founding member of the Law Dean’s Cabinet, whose members provide strategic consultation to the dean and commit at least $50,000 to support Law School programs and students. Starting more than a decade ago, Gear helped to reinvigorate the Washington, DC Suffolk Law Alumni Group, galvanizing a network of attorneys across sectors.
And as a steadfast ambassador for Suffolk, Gear regularly attends admission events in Washington for students who have been accepted to Suffolk Law. At one such event, he got to talking with a young woman who told him that while her first choice was Suffolk, she couldn’t afford to go there, so she was bound for another school that had offered more financial aid.
“I just thought that was such a shame,” Gear says. “It got me thinking that we have to help Suffolk build its financial aid capacity through philanthropy. The school was very good to me. It led directly to the success I’ve had in my career. And I just thought, you know, it would be great to pass that along to the next generation of kids coming up.”
As a result, he was inspired to help establish the Suffolk Law DC Scholarship Fund.
Gear grew up in Braintree, Massachusetts, and from age 10 he worked at his father’s Brookline carpet store. He knew he wanted to go to college, but he didn’t know where. He remembers getting on the MBTA’s Red Line not long after graduating high school and taking it to the Park Street station. The energy and vibe of the city were captivating.
“Walking around the State House and by the Sawyer Building, it just felt right,” he says.
Gear didn’t know how to apply or fill out financial aid paperwork. But people at Suffolk helped. He received financial aid and worked two jobs as an undergraduate, including as an aide for then-State Rep. Suzanne Bump. When she encouraged him to apply to Suffolk Law, her alma mater, he hesitated. “I told her that I couldn’t afford it,” he remembers.
Bump hounded Gear until he applied, and then hired him full-time while he earned his degree at night.
Suffolk Law inspired him. He still remembers Jim Janda’s legal writing classes, where his early papers were usually awash in red ink.
“By the end of the semester, I’d won an award for best written brief, because he was relentless. He made me better. Even now, I won’t use the passive voice when writing something,” Gear says, laughing.
The joy that comes from helping others is something Gear learned from his mother, Annette Gleeson Gear, who passed away from leukemia in 2021. One of seven siblings, she arrived in the United States from Ireland at 15. She was a nanny, housekeeper, secretary, bookkeeper, and a true matriarch.
“She was the type of person who would always help other people. Growing up, she had a calendar where every day she had about 45 things in it, because it was somebody’s birthday, anniversary, or special occasion. She would just have a stack of cards, and she never forgot those special days,” Gear says.
Before passing, she urged her son to find joy in life each day—and to share it with others. Her advice inspired him to create the Annette Gleeson Gear Memorial Scholarship, which supports undergraduate students with financial need.
“This is my way of sharing a little joy, to help students afford school and make their own dreams,” Gear says. “That’s certainly what happened to me. Going to Suffolk allowed me to live that dream.”
mission driven