The Colorado statesman., 1921-07-16
President S. ]. Ross
of College of West
Africa, Liberia, Dies
on Shipboard en-
Route to America
Mrs. Ross Arrives

~HE recent arrival in this country
of Mrs. Samuel John Ross. widow
\ of the late President s. j. Ross of
the College of West Africa, Monrovia,
Liberia, brings to mind the untimely
demise announced by cable of the end
of one of the most usefui and versatile
members of his race. President Ross
during his lifetime was identified with
the Negro population of three widely
separated parts of the world, and in
each was an outstanding and cOnstruc-
tive personality He was born in Brit
ish Guiana, South America, September
10. 1878. He came to the United States
in 1902 and entered Lincoln Univer-
sity.
During his college career he evinced
those qualities for leadership which
have made his name well known
among his people of two continents.
He received the degrees of Bachelor OF
Arts and Bachelor of Divinity in 1907,
at which time he was president and
vaIedictorian of his class. During his
career at Lincoln he won three gold
medals for oratory. In 1908 he entered
the College of Physicians and surgeons
of Chicago. He married Miss Pearl F..
Thomasson of Chicago in March, 1913,
and in May of that year sailed for
Porto Rico to finish his medical prep
aration with the practical work OF an
inferno at Yauco under the direction
of one of his former professors who
had charge of several dispensarles
there. In 1918, after two years work
the i'll health of Mrs. Ross caused thelr
return to the United States, where Dr
Ross practiced medicine until 1918,
when he was appointed medical mis-
sionary to Liberia by the Board OF MIS-
sions of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. In recognition of his ability
he was soon appointed president of the
College of West Africa, Monrovia,
which position he was holding at the
time of his death.
The. college grew rapidly under DIR.
Ross able administration from an EN-
rollment of $50 to 356. In collabora-
tion with Mrs. Ross, the president or
ganized the Young Women's Christian
Association and the Young Mems Chrls-
tion Association, as well as an athletc
association patterned after those OF
American colleges. These orSaniZa-
tions were the first of their kind In
Liberia. and attracted widespread anu
favorable comment. The y. w. I. a
of Liberia has recently been received
into complete affiliation with the
world organization of that name Ow-
ing TO the i'll health of Mrs. Ross,
furlough was granted the couple by
the Board of Foreign Missions under
which they worked, and it was aboard
the steamship San Carlos that DIR. Ross
was stricken, and passed away week
later. He was buried at Santa Cruz
Teneriffe. Canary Islands. Mrs. Ross
has recently arrived in the United
Estates.
According to officials of the Method
ist Board of Foreign Missions, DIR. and
Mrs. Ross occupied high rank among
missionaries. They took prominent
and constructive part in the Methodist
mission program for Liberia, when
maintains thirty-one mission schools
with sixty-five teachers and an enroll
ment of several thousand pupils, many
of them natives of the interior bush
country. where education is the pri-
mary need in spreading American civil
iZation and Christianity.