Claude Gordon Ross

ROSS, CLAUDE GORDON

On January 18, 2006, Ambassador CLAUDE GORDON ROSS of Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, CA. Devoted husband of the late Antigone Andrea Ross; beloved father of Ambassador Christopher W.S. Ross and Geoffrey Faulkner Ross; grandfather of Anthony Gordon Ross; and brother of Shirley Hogan, the late Grace Jurewitz, and the late June Drummond. He was born October 26, 1917, in Chicago, IL, moved to California in infancy, graduated from the University of Southern California in 1939, and entered the Foreign Service of the Department of State in 1940, serving successively in Mexico City, Quito, Athens, Noumea, Beirut, Cairo, and Conakry, as well as Washington, before being appointed Ambassador to the Central African Republic in 1963, Haiti in 1967, and Tanzania in 1969 and named Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 1972. After his retirement in 1974, he participated in the activities of Sister Cities International, the Committee on Education of the American Foreign Service Association, and Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR), of which he was past President and Honorary Governor. A Memorial Mass will be held at St. Ann's Catholic Church (Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., at Tenley Circle, Washington, D.C.) on Friday, January 27, 2006, at 4:30 p.m., with a reception to follow at DACOR Bacon House (1801 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.) at 6:30 p.m. Interment private. Memorial contributions may be made in his name to the DACOR Bacon House Foundation, 1801 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.