Commander Robert Main Ross, USN (ret.), died at his home in Huntington Beach, California on September 20, 2008.  He was 89.  Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he was brought up in Pasadena where he was a member of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church; he was graduated from Occidental College in 1941 where he was affiliated with Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Cdr Ross received his commission in the United States Navy in 1941 and served as captain of a coastal transport in the Solomon Islands during World War II.  After the war, he variously had command of destroyer, U.S.S. Henry W. Tucker, worked on the staff of the U.S. Naval Attache in London, and held the faculty rank of Professor of Naval Science at Rice University in Houston and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.  He retired from the Navy in 1963.  Subsequent to the Navy, Bob taught English literature for many years in Orange County.

Bob was an avid sailor all his life and raced his sloop, Caledonian, out of Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach.  He also was a member of Isthmus Yacht Club of Catalina Island where he served as commodore in 1974.  His wife of 53 years, Shirley Thompson Ross, also originally from Pasadena, died in 2003.  He leaves his daughter Dana (Ronald) Stanke of Waco, Texas; his son, Bruce Duncan Ross of La Jolla; and granddaughter Alexandra Ross Stanke.

Orange County Register, September 30, 2008