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In 1984, Gilbert Tilles joined the board of trustees of Long Island University. Mr. Tilles, a highly successful Long Island real estate developer, and his wife Rose, became sustaining supporters of the arts at the University, generously donating the funds to name the Rose and Gilbert Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the C.W. Post Campus in 1985. Throughout the years, they continued to support the Center that has grown to become Long Island’s premiere performance venue. Mr. Tilles died in 1990. His youngest child, Roger, joined the board in 1991. He was unanimously elected its chair in 1998, and continues to serve in this role today.

Roger Tilles’ association with the University dates back long before his board involvement. While earning his B.A. at Amherst College, he took summer courses at the C.W. Post Campus. He later earned his J.D. from University of Michigan Law School. In 1983, he returned to the New York metropolitan area to join his father in business. He is currently the director of The Tilles Investment Company in Woodbury, New York. During his tenure as a University trustee, Mr. Tilles has served as chair of the Executive, Collective Bargaining, Compensation and Conflict of Interest committees. In addition to his University commitments, he is a board member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Long Island Philharmonic and the Long Island Regional Planning Board. He also is past president of Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, New York.

Mr. Tilles is a member of the New York, District of Columbia and Michigan Bar Associations. He is former chair of the Association for a Better Long Island; former executive secretary to the speaker of the Michigan House; former director, Law and Legislation, Michigan Department of Education; and former member of the Michigan State Board of Education. His wife, Jerry, enrolled at C.W. Post as a part-time adult student in 1985. Managing family, career and educational obligations, she graduated twelve years later, as class salutatorian, exemplifying her tremendous dedication to gaining a quality education and the University’s commitment to providing one. The couple resides in Great Neck, New York with their two daughters, Eliana and Hanaleah.

Long Island University continues to remain an integral part of the lives of the entire Tilles family. In 1998, Roger Tilles, his brother, Peter, and sister, Ellen Tilles Weil, honored their mother by creating the Rose Tilles University Professorship in Performing Arts, currently held by the great Jazz musician, Billy Taylor. In addition, for the past 10 years, Peter Tilles has run Swing for Kids, a major Long Island golf outing sponsored by Tilles Center. Proceeds from the event are used to support programs that help children to develop a love of the arts in the classroom and through performances at Tilles Center. Shown: top photo — (l to r) Ellen Tilles Weil, Peter Tilles, Roger Tilles, Rose Tilles; bottom photo — Gilbert Tilles.

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