G.C. Ross had 'passion for education'

CLOVIS - To tell the story of longtime Clovis educator G.C. Ross, an average person could exhaust themselves and still admit they didn't come close to including everything that was noteworthy.

Ross, who died Friday at his home at 82 following a 15-month battle with pancreatic cancer, lived a life full of service and accomplishment with a lifestyle so active doctors treating his cancer swore he had to be younger.

Ross was born on Valentine's Day of 1938 in Graham, Texas, and the family made its way to Portales when he was in elementary school.

Although his dad was Glover Cleveland Ross, the younger G.C.'s initials didn't stand for anything and the birth certificate said "G (only)" and "C (only)." It was a source of frustration because it required frequent explanation, but it was also a deep well of jokes because friends would call him Gonly Conly and he'd call himself great chief or golf course or whatever worked for the situation.

His wife of more than 62 years, Jan Ross, usually called him G but said she was partial to Gavin Charles for no reason other than it sounded nice.

The two first met in second grade at Portales' East Ward Elementary, later renamed Steiner Elementary, and went on their first date as ninth-graders. Jan said she went on the date because "he was cute," they kept dating and got married three years later because they were committed to each other, and neither of those things ever changed.

Following his 1960 graduation from Eastern New Mexico University and a not-so-challenging year teaching sixth grade in Lovington, Ross briefly looked into becoming a lawyer and the family moved to Oregon so he could study at Williamette University. He realized it wasn't for him pretty quickly when he'd go watch Supreme Court sessions across the street from the law school and feared becoming, as Jan recalled, one of "the silver-haired men who would sweat blood" arguing cases.

The family returned to New Mexico, and Ross worked as a teacher for three years in the Portales district before both he and Jan were hired to teach in Clovis in 1965. After just two years teaching at Eugene Field Elementary, he became principal and remained on the administrative side for the rest of his educational career.

Ross helped open Lockwood Elementary in 1971 and spent 15 years as principal there before moving to the central office as assistant superintendent for instruction under Rick Purvis.

Early in his administrative days, family members said, teachers were afraid of Ross because they didn't know him and he was younger than many of the teachers he supervised. But once they met him, their fears of being "G.C.ed" subsided.

"He may correct you, but you would feel loved because he would correct you gently," his daughter Dana Ware said. "He was so good with people, they always wanted to do a good job."

Jelayne Curtis has been assistant to the superintendent since 1997, and has worked with eight superintendents if Ross' two stints as interim superintendent were counted separately. She noted difficulty in trying to point out any specific memory or summation of his qualities.

"I guess it's passion for education and kids, and just his kindness to all people," Curtis said. "He was a kind, kind man in all aspects of his life."

Ladona Clayton, who worked with Ross as she moved up the CMS system, said she recalled countless pieces of advice from him, whether it was to carry a bucket in your car as principal because you may have to take a sick kid home, to respect "beware of dog" signs and that "you have to plow with the mules you've been given" in every situation.

Ross, Clayton said, would carry a black notebook everywhere and always kept a copy of the American Heritage Dictionary for the annual county spelling bee. And he always broke bad news the same way, with squinting eyes and a cocked head.

"He would say your name in melodic syllables, like 'Laa-dawn-uh,'" Clayton said with a laugh. "As soon as we heard this, we just wanted to say no because it was a big job coming. It's the only time he said it like that."

Mel Mapes, a longtime friend and former employee of Ross' for 37 years, first got to know Ross as part of an employee volleyball league at the Lincoln-Jackson campus. He called Ross a man of character and somebody you could depend on whether it was something at the office or making the morning golf game.

"One of the last few times we played, it was 15 degrees," said Mapes, who noted the other four or five in their group had a 40-degree rule. "Because he was an athlete and ran several marathons in his lifetime, weather was not a problem to him. He'd show up."

While he wasn't one to turn down a TV session for Dallas Cowboys games, Golf Channel broadcasts or even "Dancing With the Stars," Ross rarely sat around the house. He did all of the landscaping, played golf frequently and ran more than 50,000 miles since he picked up the habit just before he turned 40.

"He had friends who were runners," Jan said, noting spouses would sometimes have to go as far as Portales to pick them up when the runs concluded. "He enjoyed the companionship and camaraderie of running. It gave him another avenue of adventure."

He would usually start the day with a run between 7 and 10 miles, though he dropped down to half that in his later years, and usually made the runs with his golden retriever Hailey - who was important enough to Ross that a document on the family history includes her being put to sleep in 2017. He used those runs to judge what was and wasn't an inclement weather day.

"He would always say," Curtis said, "as long as he and Hailey could get out and run, we would have school."

Ross was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on May 7, 2019, and throughout a Whipple procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and weight loss, his attitude remained positive. His wife and daughter choked back tears as they said he was in a better place, playing golf and going on runs with Hailey.

Ross won countless awards for his work over the years, including 2001 induction into the ENMU Educator Hall of honors, but his favorite award might have been the Top Cat he received from the Clovis Municipal Schools Foundation.

His service was varied and far-reaching, including three years in the New Mexico Army National Guard and president terms for the Clovis Noonday Lions Club and the New Mexico Christian Children's Home Board of Directors.

Services are scheduled for Friday afternoon at Wheeler Mortuary in Portales.