Russell Wilcox "Rusty" Grosse

1935 - 2021

Russell 'Rusty' Wilcox Grosse, a lifelong resident of the Carlsbad/Oceanside community he cherished, passed away suddenly on May 5, 2021.

As a young boy Rusty was drawn to the ocean and spent endless summer days on nearly vacant pristine white sand beaches, frequently joined by his sister Barbara 'Petey' and their cousins and friends, enjoying his special love for body surfing followed with his form of a beach towel - lying belly down in the warm sand.

But the shores did not satisfy his passion for the thrill of the deep blue ocean, and in the summer of 1954 between his freshman and sophomore years in college, Rusty was hired aboard a Norwegian freighter, m/s Vigan, bound from San Francisco to the Philippines, China, and Japan. Rusty was tasked with the crew to wipe down the engine pistons and assist in machining replacement parts, all while in the hold of a rocking ship. During stops at ports such as Manilla, Nagoya, Okinawa, Hong Kong, and finally Vancouver, he sent letters and postcards to his family and friends. Parts of these letters were reprinted in the local 'Blade Tribune' newspaper. Rusty loved sharing stories about his experiences throughout his life, many of which involved more travels around the world.

The family lived a short time in Phoenix, Arizona, before moving back to Oceanside, and then to Carlsbad. Rusty attended Pine Street Elementary School in Carlsbad, Army and Navy Academy as a day student in 8th Grade, and Oceanside-Carlsbad High School. He was freshman class Student Council Representative and elected Student Body President his senior year. His love of sports flourished, and he was a three-year varsity stand-out as a fullback on the Oceanside-Carlsbad football team.

He went on to attend Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College), where he met so many of his lifelong friends playing on championship football teams for the Pomona-Claremont Sagehens. Rusty was named the ""Iron Man"" of the 1955 SCIAC Championship Team, Co-Athlete of the Year as a senior, and was inducted into CMC's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. Rusty excelled as a leader off the field as well and became President of the CMC Student Body. Rusty was asked to write his memories of the Class of 1957 for CMC's 75th-year anniversary magazine, an honor he recently completed that will have a lasting impact for the College.

In 1954, while driving slowly through the Pomona campus, Rusty met Mary 'Bebe' Mooney. A ride to the library and more conversation plus an invitation to a dance marked the beginning of a long and everlasting love affair. Bebe and Rusty were inseparable from the day they first met, with ""Bebe and Rusty"" being more a phrase than two persons' names. In the days that followed, they knew their future would be spent together, not unlike a quotation from Browning on a birthday card that read, ""Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.""

Stanford Law School was the next step for Rusty, where he honed his writing and critical thinking skills. Rusty was a perfectionist when it came to writing, whether a contract or a letter to a friend or family member, every word left on paper was pointed and purposeful. In June of 1958, before his second year of law school, Rusty and Bebe were married, and they started their family that eventually grew to four children, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

After law school, Rusty dedicated himself to his children, his extended family, his career, his community, and above all else, his wife. Following graduation from Stanford, the family moved to a small house close to the beach in Carlsbad, and he joined a law firm in Oceanside and soon became a partner at the firm, Andreasen, Gore, Grosse and Thompson. In 1962, the family moved to a larger home in Carlsbad, where they had horses, sheep, and other small animals. They enjoyed participation in North County 4-H activities and showing at the County Fair, and a rare invitation for Rusty on weekends to take his horse and play Polo with some of the officers at Camp Pendleton.

In 1969, a Colorado homebuilder client enticed Rusty to join his company to develop a tract of 2,000 acres in Colorado Springs, which meant temporarily moving the family. Rusty became President of Sproul Homes, and the company expanded its building projects over the next three years throughout the Western states. Here, Rusty found his passion for real estate development, a career that he never considered work and never retired from. Rusty always intended to return home with his family to Carlsbad to begin improving ""The Ranch"" property. The Ranch was thick with mature Oaks and Sycamore trees, no shortage of poison oak, and a creek running through it. It was the perfect place to raise active children where they could tend to the farm animals, build tree houses, hang 60-foot tree swings, and teach their friends how to ride dirt bikes. It was and remains an idyllic place to enjoy parties and picnics with friends and family.

Shortly after returning to Carlsbad, Rusty developed his first of several shopping centers and started the company, which became Foursquare Properties, Inc. He worked with a dedicated team of partners, colleagues, and family members. By the time Rusty was in his 60's he had developed over 3 million sq/ft of commercial property and 4,000 residential homes throughout the West.

Rusty was especially proud of his involvement in building the YMCA Aquatic Park facility on the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad. Rusty was instrumental in getting most of the materials and labor donated by local citizens and builders and the land donated by the Ecke family. The Army & Navy Academy Band played at the grand opening in 1963 for the Carlsbad residents who walked down along the railroad tracks to stand together when they launched the first sailboat into the water. Since then, it has continued to be a focal point for enjoying water sports. Rusty and Bebe were generous donors to the Oceanside Museum of Arts, Santa Margarita YMCA, Women's Resource Center, Elks Club, Oceanside Boys Club, North County Concert Association, Tri-City Hospital Foundation, Oceanside Chamber of Commerce, Claremont Men's College, Pomona College, and many other charitable causes too many to name.

And to the center of his universe, Bebe, he gave his whole heart. Rusty and Bebe's adventures together at sea first began in 1988 with the sailboat ""Carita,"" and soon thereafter, their motor sail yacht, ""Morgana."" Their sailing adventures extended around the world and included bluewater crossings of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and stops in ports off islands in the China Sea, the South Pacific, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. They sailed through the fjords of Alaska twice, and even made their way through the Panama Canal in 2019. At each destination, they gravitated to the locals and added to their circle of close-knit and lifelong friendships.

Closer to home, Bebe and Rusty took canoe trips to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, where they relished in the simplicity of camping under the starlit skies, cooking over a fire, and relaxing together with paperback novels. Rusty was an insatiable reader of books from history, to building designs, to mindless fiction. Together Rusty and Bebe loved to invite anyone and everyone into their home and hosted international students and countless parties: 4th of July, Women's Resource Center Magical Evenings, CMC and Tortuga parties, New Year's Eve celebrations, weddings and receptions, birthday parties, cousins' parties, pig roast luaus, and even a college lacrosse team BBQ. The front doors were wide and always open!

Rusty never settled for anything less than excellence, loved his work so much it never was, surrounded himself with people who inspired and challenged him every day, and went out with his ""boots on."" Rusty, Dad, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, will be sorely missed by so many. We find solace that he touched our lives and the lives of so many others in such wonderful and unique ways. He continues to live on in us through those memories and inspires us to also live a life well-lived.

Rusty is survived by his wife Mary Elanore 'Bebe' (Mooney) Grosse; his children Kathryn Louise Grosse, Russell Erich Grosse, William Mooney Grosse (Lisa), and Margaret Ann Grosse Hyatt (Rob); his seven grandchildren Megan Lynn (Grosse) Nelson, William Ryan Grosse, Alexandria Eileen (Grosse) Lowe, Paige Elanore (Grosse) Hale, Abigail Erika Grosse, Hannah Kristine Hyatt, and Kristian Nicolai Hyatt; and his eight great-grandchildren Mason Jeffrey Lowe, Amelia Abigail Lowe, Alena Nicole Lowe, Ivan Russell Hale, Ryker Cody Hale, Joy Abigail Hale, Brayden Hollister Nelson, and Rylynn Sinclair Nelson. He was predeceased by his parents Bernice (Wilcox) Grosse and Russell Grosse, and his sister Barbara 'Petey' Seibold.
The family has chosen July 24 for Rusty's Ceremony of Remembrance and Celebration of Life.