ForeverMissed
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This memorial website was created in memory of our loved one, George Ross, 73 years old, born on September 2, 1937, and passed away on March 11, 2011. We will remember him forever.

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A Great Professor and a Great Friend

August 27, 2014

I met Professor Ross, who I came to know as my friend, George, when I enrolled at CCNY in their then new Computer Science program in the early seventies. I had dropped out after a couple of years of college, and was returning in my late twenties. Over the course of time, I not only learned a lot of really solid mathematical and computer science knowledge, but we also became friends.

I was married and had just moved to NYC when we first met. Often I would catch a ride downtown with him at the end of the day, and I would have a few hours to kill til my wife got off work. George and I used to play a bit of chess, but over time, more often backgammon, and occasionally English darts. Thanks to George, I not only learned backgammon and darts, but got fairly good at them. We also often shared intense discussions on anything and everything that went on: politics, movies and literature, new directions in science, differing and emerging strategies of competitive backgammon...anything two curious minds might encounter, and that two friends might discuss.

I also was fortunate to be able to spend time with him, and sometimes with our dates of the moment, hour, or whatever, out on the town. He introduced me to two of the best bars in the Village, where he lived, as well as what is still one of my favorite Italian restaurants. (Jim Smith's Jacques bar, at the corner of Walk and Don't Walk; the old English Pub; and Rocco's restaurant, on Thompson.)

Much of the reason I came to like NYC and to fit in there, after growing up in the Midwest and in Florida, was because of the excellent introduction George gave me of it, and more importantly, the variety of people he knew and who he counted as friends.

He was one of those type of intellectually gifted individuals who was not totally and exclusively bound up in a narrow ivory tower world, although he fit in there very well, too. Rather, he was a person of truly diverse interests, and I was fortunate enough to become one of his best friends during my earlier years in NYC. If you know anything about the kind of person Richard Feynman was, interested in  life in general as well as in math and science, that was the type of person George was.

After a period of years, I ended up leaving NYC, and lost touch with George. It was during an attempt to see if I could still locate him that I discovered that he had passed about three years ago.

I have already said a lot, and there is a lot more, all good, that could be said of a man like George. But if you knew him at all, you already know this. And if you didn't, I wish you could have, because your life would have been richer and more interesting for having done so.

So I will just end by saying that I am truly sorry that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to him, and that besides being one of the best professors I ever had, he was one of the best friends I have ever had, and was one of the best and most interesting people you could hope to know in this world.

CCNY

April 5, 2011

I was fortunate to know Professor Ross during my time at City College.  He was well liked by his students.  He was interested in computer science education and the improvement of teaching methods.

Even at the end of a long career, Professor Ross was receptive to new ideas and methodologies.  We often spoke about programming languages that were easier to learn and made it easier to experiment with mathematics.  I will remember him as the true experimenter a technologist should be.

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