Talk to just about anyone who knows Paul W. "Skip" Ungrodt Jr., and you'll hear about a man whose heart is as big as his checkbook. He readily opens both whenever and wherever he sees a need.

He'll pick up a paintbrush to spruce up the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Collection, which he helped create, or throw a fund-raiser to bring out the big money for anything from AIDS research to the local United Way or the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea. Or myriad other causes.

He patrols downtown Ann Arbor, tearing down the posters that blight it.

In addition to being a finalist for The Ann Arbor News Citizen of the Year award, Ungrodt is receiving a lifetime achievement award in New York from AMFAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, in May. And he's on the cover of this month's Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce magazine as successful businessman of the month.

Ungrodt is the owner of Crown House of Gifts stores in Ann Arbor, Dayspring Gifts in Chelsea, and founder-owner of Ideation Inc., a gift shop syndicated catalog publisher. He predicted Beanie Baby stuffed animals would be a big seller.

Ungrodt was born and raised in Ypsilanti. He took one look at the "gift shop" over the office supply store there as a young man, pronounced it supremely ugly, reworked it, and made it a success. A career was born.

Even now, Ungrodt loves his work, and shows up in plaid shirts and suspenders. But he also loves community service. He fields seven or eight requests for funding or fund-raising assistance daily.

After he built a museum in his father's Wisconsin hometown, he turned his hand to Ypsilanti, to recognize its place in the history of automobile manufacturing and design with the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Collection.

He approached a couple of friends, Peter B. Fletcher, owner of the Credit Bureau of Ypsilanti, and Jack Miller, who owned the last Hudson car dealership in the country. He wanted to honor the Tucker Torpedo, the GM Corvair, the early ACE, and the Kaiser, all of which were designed or manufactured in Ypsilanti.

Sure, he donated a huge chunk of his own money. But then he painted the new window frames, too.

"He's tough to keep up with every day," Miller said. "It's about giving something back to his community.

"It's just give, give, give, give, give," Miller said of Ungrodt.

Lansing lobbyist and former state representative Kirk Profit nominated Ungrodt for Citizen of the Year.

Profit said Ungrodt enriches and enhances Ann Arbor and surrounding communities. His list of financial contributions, Profit said, "is only outshadowed by the number of hours of devoted service (he) provides to this community."