Gordon Strauss had just undergone surgery at Emory Johns Creek Hospital.
When it was over, he felt grateful to be alive and doing as well as he was, so grateful that he thought to himself that he needed to do something to show his appreciation to the surgeon and hospital staff for the care shown him.
Back at home, Strauss, an 81-year-old retired civil engineer, said he started building airplanes out of the blue.
He took them to the hospital and presented them first to the hospital CEO and then to other staff. Before long, he added nearby Northside Hospital to his list of recipients.
“It felt good to be able to do it,” Strauss said.
Years later in 2010, his oldest granddaughter was diagnosed with leukemia, and his efforts, well, took off.
He'd seen how the planes managed to lift spirits at Emory Johns Creek and Northside. Maybe they'd have the same impact on the parents and children at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where his granddaughter was receiving care.
“I wanted to do something to give the kids a smile on their faces even if it was just for a minute or two,” Strauss said.
But instead of building airplanes, Strauss turned his whimsy to birdhouses and then birdhouses with doors and, to add a little character, birdhouses with surprises inside and on top: Goofy. SpongeBob. A cute little teddy bear.
Even after his granddaughter went into remission in 2013, Strauss continued his outreach. As he said, it made him feel good.
It made the children feel good, too.
“These birdhouses are among the most unique donations we have ever received,” said Melanie Turner, volunteer and special events coordinator at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “It’s clear to see how much time, love and creativity go into making each one. He is so kind to do this for our patients. These definitely put big smiles on little faces.”
How it all took flight
Strauss didn’t always build birdhouses and planes. And though he’d grown up in East Pittsburgh, Pa., a major steel mill city in its heyday, he’d spent much of his life making a living as a civil engineer, overseeing the construction of coal-fired power plants and wastewater treatment and industrial facilities.
His work took him all over the country: Maine, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts and Kentucky, where he was honored in 1971 as a designated Kentucky Colonel by then-Gov. Louie B. Nunn.
Along the way, he married his wife of 51 years, Janet, and into their union were born two daughters who gave them four grandchildren: two boys and two girls, the latter of which live in Atlanta.
And so after retiring in 2005, the Strausses left Massachusetts and settled here in Suwanee, where he spends his time building birdhouses and painting.
The birdhouses and the children, though, remain his priority.
He figures he’s given them as gifts to nearly 30 hospital patients, including 15 patients at Children’s.
About five a year, he said.
“Five doesn’t sound like a lot, but it takes three to four days to make them,” he said.
And only a moment to make a kid smile, said Keri Janton of Sugar Hill.
Janton, who detailed how she meets the special needs of her 4-year-old son Max in an Oct. 18 Personal Journey, said Strauss contacted her after reading her story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I was beyond touched by the gesture,” Janton said recently. “I thought it was such an amazing thing to take his experience with his granddaughter and find something positive to do for others. I love how he made this his mission to make families smile.”
Colorful creations
Janton described Max’s birdhouse as “vibrant with a tiger on top” and not one but two stuffed animals inside: one for Max and one for his little brother Duke.
“He definitely knows his audience because they’re very kid-friendly,” she said.
None of the birdhouse designs, which Strauss has copyrighted, are the same.
His colorful creations are crafted from plywood, hand-painted, and finished off with a colorless polyurethane in a back corner of his garage.
People call it Strauss’ workshop.
Done, he hand-delivers them to the children or their parents or caregivers.
“It’s hard to see anyone hurt or suffer, especially children,” he said. “The children never give up and neither do the parents. They deserve all the love they can receive.”
