Rowan University gets $30 million naming gift for New Jersey’s first veterinary school

Gerald B. Shreiber said he used to bring dogs home and lie to his mother that they simply followed him.

“Every stray I met became a friend,” Shreiber recalled. “I don’t know what it was. I just had it in me.”

That early fondness for dogs turned into a lifelong passion for animals that culminated Friday when Rowan University announced New Jersey’s first veterinary school will be named for Shreiber, board chairman of the Pennsauken-based J&J Snack Foods Corp., perhaps best known as the maker of the SuperPretzel line of soft pretzels.

» READ MORE: After 10 years, Rowan University president Ali A. Houshmand is more ambitious than ever

The school’s naming coincided Friday with an announcement that a $30 million gift from Shreiber will be used for scholarships at its soon-to-be-built Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine of Rowan University.

The announcement was made at a groundbreaking at the new school’s site on Rowan’s West Campus in Harrison Township, with Gov. Phil Murphy attending. The New Jersey legislature in 2021 approved $75 million in funding for the 108,000-square-foot school. With academic classrooms, laboratories, a teaching hospital and offices, it’s expected to open in 2025 with a class of 60 to 70 students, pending accreditation approval.

It’s just the third veterinary school of more than 30 in the country that will carry a specific name, according to Matthew Edson, Rowan’s founding veterinary school dean. The other two are Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts and Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State.

Shreiber’s gift is the third largest to Rowan and the second-largest gift from an individual, behind the $100 million it got from namesake Henry Rowan in 1992 that led to the establishment of the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering.

» READ MORE: Human remains of what are believed to be 13 Revolutionary War Hessian soldiers found next to Red Bank Battlefield, N.J.

“His generous gift demonstrates his passion — for education and for animals,” said Rowan President Ali A. Houshmand, whose contract was extended by the board of trustees this week for three years, to 2029. “His support will give our future veterinary students extraordinary opportunities to receive the best education and supports possible to improve the quality of life for the animals they treat.”

Rowan intends to use the gift for student scholarships.

It’s not Shreiber’s first animal-related gift to Rowan. In 2019, he pledged $3 million to establish the Shreiber Family Pet Therapy Program, which funds certified therapy dogs to interact with students on campus. The program currently includes 26 therapy dog handlers and 28 therapy dogs.

Shreiber, 81, grew up in Chester and later outside of Atlantic City. His father was a food produce manager for a grocery store. Shreiber married and became a father at 18 and got a job as a machine shop apprentice, earning $1.50 an hour. By his mid 20s, he had made enough money to run his own shop with some partners.

When he heard about a pretzel-making company in bankruptcy, he bought it for $72,100. J&J has grown into a company with more than a billion dollars in annual revenue, with brands including ICEE, LUIGI’S and Dippin’ Dots, in addition to SuperPretzel.

“Every baseball park in the country sells my pretzels,” he said.

The company has made Forbes magazine’s list of the “200 Best Small Companies” seven times.

Shreiber for years has supported animal welfare and animal rights causes, including serving on the Pennsylvania SPCA board. He also started his own foundation called S.A.F.E., Shreiber Animal Foundation Enterprise, which provides therapy dogs.

His son, Lindsay, is a veterinarian, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School and now practicing in King of Prussia.

Shreiber and his wife, Melanie, share a 113-acre farm in Mullica Hill, with nine rescue animals, including four dogs: two shepherds, named Hachi and June, a cattle dog named Dingo and a mix named Kimba. He also has three horses and two goats.

“We are all one big happy family,” he said, as the dogs barked in the background, providing a fitting soundtrack.

One of his favorite pastimes is riding horses.

“It gives me unbelievable emotional refreshment,” he told The Inquirer in a 2016 interview. “I’m on a 1,300-, 1,400-pound animal. Gentle. You could move him with a finger. He trusts me, he really does. I trust him. And it’s almost incomparable. I ride with four or five dogs trailing alongside me.”

He said having his name on the veterinary school, near his home, means a lot. But he would have donated the money even if his name wasn’t on it, he said.

“It’s the kind of giving that doesn’t hurt,” he said. “It helps, particularly when you see working-class students coming and going from there. It’s important that students have that kind of opportunity and education. There is no veterinary school in New Jersey and now we will have one.”