Ross, Percy Jay 1901-1948

ROSS, KOCH

Posted By: Doris Hoffman, Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/16/2014 at 10:58:03

DR. PERCY J. ROSS DIES WEDNESDAY

Rites Will be Held Here Saturday For the Former Akron Man

Dr. Percy J. Ross, 47, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ross, of this city, passed away yesterday (Wednesday) morning in Chicago, after an illness of over a month. Mr. and Mrs. Ross went to see their son in a Chicago hospital a few weeks ago, at which time they were advised that there was practically no possibility of his recovery.

Dr. Ross has engaged in medical practice in Chicago for a number of years.

The community extends sincere sympathy to his family, parent and other relatives in their bereavement.

Funeral services will be held here in the First Baptist church Saturday afternoon, at 2:00 o'clock. Interment will be in Riverside Cemetery.
Akron Register Tribune
Thursday, September 30, 1948
Akron, Iowa

HOLD RITES FOR DR. PERCY J. ROSS HERE SATURDAY

Esteemed Chicago Physician Spent His Boyhood In Akron

There was brief mention made in these columns last week of the death of Dr. Percy J. Ross, of Chicago, at his home in La Grange, Ill., on Tuesday, September 28, at the age of 46, loving obituary and fine testimonial to his character, life and work was read at the funeral services in the church in which he held membership in La Grange, the First Congregational, of which Rev. Thomas Le Roy Crosby, the pastor, officiated on Thursday of last week:

Percu Jay Ross was born in Akron, Iowa, on Christmas Day in 1901. He was the second of the four children--three sons and one daughter-of Robert and May Koch Ross.

He received his education in the public schools of Akron; at the Uviversity of Iowa Medical School, and at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where he did postgraduate, work in Otolaryngology. His general internship was in the Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Ross came to Chicago in 1927, where he was a senior member in the Department of Otolaryngology at St. Luke's Hospital, and where, more recently, he was on the faculty of Northwestern Medical school as well.

During the war he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps of the United States army Air Force, stationed at bases in Mississippi and Colorado.

He and his family have lived in La Grange since 1935. He died at his home on South Spring Avenue Tuesday morning, September 28, 1948.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Florence Ross; their daughter, Betty Jean; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. and Mrs. Robert Ross, of Akron, Iowa; his two brother, Russell Ross, of Spencer, Iowa, and Leslie Ross, of Omaha, Nebraska, and his sister, Mrs. Janet Ross Claeys, of Akron, Iowa.

Burial will be in the family cemetery in Akron, Iowa.

Dr. Ross will be rememberd for his brilliant mind; his quiet, kind, modest, generous disposition; his enjoyment of good music and good litature; his skill in his profession, and his rich and abundant life in his home.

He had a brilliant mind, a mind that was always conce4rned to find and to know the truth. This made him an omnivorous reader of profesional books and good literature in general. It gave him the scholarship that enabled him to become, while still in the Medical School, a member of the Honorary Medical Fraternity, Alpha Omega Alpha.
Like all good doctors, he placed first and foremost the health and welfare of his patients; all other considerations were secondary. While not a general practitioner, he frequently went far beyond the call of duty to serve the patients and their families, at times forgetting his need of rest and relaxation and sleep to watch with them through the night.

Robert Louis Stevenson could have been thinking of him when writing of a beloved physician he said, "Generosity he has such as is possible to those who practice an art, never to those who drive a trade; discretion, tested by a hundred secrets; tact, tried in a thousand embarrassment; and what are more important, Hereulean cheerfulness and courage. So it is that he brings air and cheer into the sicroom, and often enough, though (perhaps) not as often as he wishes, brings healing."

Dr. Ross was a member of the First congregational churc of La Grange and was active in the life of the church. He was a man of faith, being interested in the soul as well as the body. But it was in his home that he was known the best, loved the dearest, and where he will be missed the most.

He has left us far too soon. He was only 46 years of age. But we should remembered that life is not measured in terms of its quanity but in terms of its quality. We should remember also that our Christian faith tells us that the things of worth that we miss on earth are reserved for our souls to do.

Therefore, as we gather here today, our thoughts are not just about his death, but about his life, about his eternal life with God.

The body of Dr. Percy J. Ross arrived here from La Grange, Ill., last Friday morning, accompanied by his wife, Florence, and daughter, Betty Jean.
Funeral services were held at the First Baptist church Saturday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock, conducted by Rev. S. D. Huff, of the First Baptist church, Sioux City.

The pallbearers were Porter Maynard, Orlan Moore, Clair McCorkell, Wesley McCorkell, Karl Silkebakken and Lowell Burrill. Intement was in Riverside Cemetery.

Among the relatives present from a distance were: Mr. and Mrs. Russell Ross and daughter, Sidney, of Spencer, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Ross, of Omaha, Nebr.; Dr. and Mrs George W. Koch, of Anaheim, Calif.; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Koch, of Guthrie Center, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Seipels, of Cherokee, Iowa.

Akron Register Tribune
Thursday, October 7, 1948
Akron, Iowa