Sigma Chi Fraternity no relation George Washington University
Early life and education
Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson was born in Logan, Utah, one of three children of Roy and Grace Anderson. His parents both worked at Anderson Lumber Company, a local lumber yard founded by Rocky's great-grandfather, a Norwegian immigrant carpenter who had converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).Though Anderson does not currently consider himself to be a Mormon, he was raised as one and was a practicing member of the LDS Church in Logan. He has described his disagreement with certain doctrines of the LDS Church, particularly the denial of the priesthood to men of black African descent and the denial to Black men and women of the right to engage in religious temple ceremonies (see Black people and Mormonism) prior to 1978. Anderson has likewise expressed his disagreement with the LDS Church’s teachings and policies relating to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Anderson also expresses disagreement with what he describes as the LDS teaching of personal moral abdication through obedience to people in positions of authority. Anderson believes in the principle of personal conscience and individual moral development and accountability, and considers any call for blind obedience as being incompatible with that principle.Amidst a wide variety of courses, Anderson studied ethics, political philosophy, and religious philosophy at the University of Utah.During high school (He attended Ogden High School, built as a WPA project during the Great Depression), Anderson played lead guitar in a rock and roll band, the Viscounts, and worked at a cabinet and roof truss plant. He also shingled roofs during his high school and college years. After graduating from Ogden High School, Anderson attended the University of Utah, during which time he served as Treasurer for the Beta Epsilon chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity and worked at various jobs, including as a truck driver, a roofer, and a gas station manager. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy, graduating magna cum laude. After reading existentialist literature and several works on ethics, religious philosophy, and political philosophy, he had a "powerful epiphany. We can't escape responsibility, there's no sitting out moral decisions, and whenever we refuse to stand up against wrongdoing we're actually supporting the status quo."After graduating from the University of Utah, Anderson worked at several jobs. He built buck fence at a ranch in Wyoming, tended bar in Salt Lake City, drove a cab, waited tables at a restaurant, worked at a methadone clinic, typed freight bills, and worked in construction.He started graduate school in philosophy at the University of Utah, then traveled to Europe and lived and worked for a few months in Freiburg, Germany before returning to the United States to attend law school. In 1978, Anderson graduated, with honors, from George Washington University Law School, earning his Juris Doctor.
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