leader in the anti-tuberculosis movement, businessman, editor, author, b. Appleton. He contracted tuberculosis while in high school, attempted recovery in Texas for a time, but soon returned to Wisconsin, and in 1909 entered the River Pines Sanatorium at Stevens Point. There, while gradually recovering, he wrote a book, My Personal Experience with Tuberculosis (1910), and began to operate a supply store for patients. He was moved to the state sanatorium near Waukesha in 1914, was eventually cured of tuberculosis, but continued his supply business, which he moved to Milwaukee. There, as Will Ross Inc., it became one of the largest mail-order hospital supply houses in the country. Ross was president of this company until his retirement in 1950. He was also a close friend of Hoyt E. Dearholt (q.v.), one of the principal founders of the Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and soon became a leading figure in this organization. He was WATA seal sales director (1923-1937), business manager (1926-1937), associate editor of its magazine, Crusader (1927-1939), and was a member of the WATA's executive committee at the time of his death. Ross was also president of the Mississippi Valley Anti-Tuberculosis Conference (1941), served on the National Tuberculosis Association board, and was president of the national organization (1945-1946). He lived in suburban Fox Point near Milwaukee until his death. Crusader, 43 (7), pp. 14-15; L. F. Brand, "Epic Fight" (Unpub. MS); Appleton Post-Crescent, June 1, 1951; Milwaukee journal, June 1, 1951.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]