Sidney Kluger fervently believed that one person could make a difference. Kluger, a publisher and college professor who died in 2006 at age 93, put that belief into action when he founded Book Bank USA, which has since donated more than 5 million books to 37 countries.

“My father was really a remarkably quiet guy who didn’t want the limelight,” says Andrew Kluger of San Rafael, who runs three companies, including the largest aero-medical transport firm in the Pacific, and teaches business at the University of Maryland and the University of Hong Kong. “And as a result he got a lot done.”

Andrew Kluger inherited his father’s legacy, and is now president of the Book Bank. In addition to books, Book Bank USA has provided over 1,700 computers to more than 400 schools and helped build several senior centers and art programs across the globe since its inception in 1966.

Andrew Kluger

“He was prepared to give her a check right there. But he said, ‘How can we help?’ The librarian’s answer was simple, ‘Send books.’ As a publisher and college professor, my father had a real love for books.”

So the elder Kluger got together with a few literary friends — including James Michener, Pearl Buck and John Dos Passos — and decided to collect and ship books to Israel. In 1968, Kluger funded a bookmobile for Jewish and Arab children at the request of Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.

“Book Bank USA has arrangements with school districts and public libraries, because normally they get rid of their materials every few years,” Kluger explains. “They give us their books and we ship them abroad.”

Book Bank USA’s main warehouse is located at the Port of Oakland. Five wooden shipping containers help fill the warehouse, which is about the size of a quarter of a football field.

“One container has computers donated from Condé Nast Publications for a technical school in Israel and art supplies for a youth village, Yemin Orde, near Haifa,” says Kluger, who has a dedicated cadre of volunteers and a board that includes Dionne Warwick and Kirk Douglas. “Another container has classroom furniture for Costa Rica and a third container has a complete library and science labs for a girl’s school in Kenya.”

Kluger has traveled to 15 of the recipient countries to witness first-hand the fruits of Book Bank USA’s efforts. Some of Book Bank USA’s philanthropy also helps to support fun runs in Hawaii for the Hispanic Business Education Fund; Project Sunshine, a national nonprofit that provides free services to children with life threatening illnesses; an elementary school in Salt Lake City, Utah; and an abused women’s center on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

“We are trying to meet the needs of both young and older individuals who are forgotten in the hustle and bustle of the technological age,” Kluger says.

Book Bank USA also responds to international crises, Kluger notes. After the devastating Southeast Asian tsunami in 2004, Book Bank USA enlisted Dakin Toys to ship two containers filled with stuffed animals, which were distributed to children in the affected areas.

“I got the idea to help these shell-shocked tsunami kids from my dad, who originally dealt with the Yemin Orde youth village,” Kluger says. “There were kids [there] from war-torn countries, many from Ethiopia, and Chaim Peri, the director there, asked my dad for stuffed animals.”

Book Bank USA helps children in America as well. Three years ago, Book Bank USA partnered with the James J. Gallagher Endowment Fund to assist the North Bay Children’s Center in Novato with high-quality childcare programs.

Book Bank USA also has responded to the changing times, Kluger says. In addition to creating a Web site, http://www.bookbankusa.org, the group is currently examining longer-term programs as one way to continue making a difference during these economically challenging times.

But Kluger is not worried about the long-term health of Book Bank USA, noting that he has a very active board of directors and advisory board. And BBUSA still attracts donors: The Belmont City Public Library recently donated two truckloads of books that normally would have been discarded.

“Book Bank USA can definitely exist without the Kluger family,” says Kluger, whose father packed boxes at the warehouse up until a month before he died. “But it’d be crazy to let this thing go. My father started something that is a great legacy.”