Being a sucker for history and heritage, I did some quick googling on the two men mentioned above. I've come up short on information about Dr. Gross. However, the caption under his picture here in the hallway says that the idea for the Star of Hope mission began during a prayer meeting in his office. He was also active in the founding of the Baptist Hospital, which later became the Memorial Hospital System and is now the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.
My googling was more productive for B. F. Riley. Here's an excerpt from an article in the Baptist Standard commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1900 hurricane in Galveston:
The building of First Baptist Church of Houston was destroyed. Pastor B.F. Riley had come to the church only a week earlier. At the time, the church had a membership of about 575 and a building valued at $37,000. In the Sept. 13 Baptist Standard, Riley reported that wind and rain battered Houston and his church for 10 to 12 hours.
"Houses are demolished, and the streets are barricaded with beams, bricks and stones, trees, telegraph poles and wires," he wrote. "Among the wrecked buildings is the Baptist church. The steeple in falling carried away the whole south end of the building. The remainder is practically useless for service. Our people have suffered severely. ... I have never seen more universal desolation."
At the time, First Baptist Church of Houston was the largest in Union Baptist Association, which then listed 27 churches and covered a vast area, including Galveston.
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