news-record.com

Long before Tom Ross would be named leader of a 17-campus university system, he was one heck of a fly-fisherman.

Ross’ law school buddy, Wendell Ott, lived out west for several years and he developed a passion for the sport. Ott met Ross during Ott’s second year of law school at UNC-Chapel Hill, and their friendship flourished around mountain hikes, cups of lemonade and trout.

“Fly-fishing for native trout is a challenging endeavor, and it took him awhile to master it, but he never would give up,” Ott said. “He kept right at it until he became quite a skillful fly-fisherman.”

It was that same striving for excellence, that same perseverance, friends and leaders of the university system say, that made Ross the obvious choice to replace Erskine Bowles as UNC president.

“I’ve always known Tom was an exceptional person … even from our very early days,” Ott said.
l l l
Public service isn’t something Ross, 60, could ever avoid. It was ingrained in him early on.

“I learned at Davidson — which has as part of its mission to help students prepare for lives of leadership and service — that service to the public is important, and something that I felt called to do. … I’ve looked for opportunities where I felt I could make a difference.”

Ross, a graduate of Grimsley High School and a 1972 Davidson graduate, first found that opportunity on the bench when Gov. Jim Hunt appointed him to fill a vacant Superior Court judgeship. He would sit on the bench for 17 years, and he also served as director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

He presided over grueling murder trials, difficult civil cases and even had to hand down a sentence to one of his judicial colleagues. It was a job that required following the letter of the law — and then some.

“I think you have to call on your inner strength and your faith and your commitment to doing what’s right,” Ross said.
Greensboro attorney Bynum Hunter, who tried mainly civil cases before Ross, said he was an excellent judge.

“He didn’t rule the way I thought he ought to have — mainly in my favor — but he was probably right,” Hunter said.

“He’s smart. He’s competent. He knows what he’s doing.”

Ross once told his wife, Susan, that the only jobs he’d consider leaving the bench for would be as commissioner of major league baseball or as director of the charitable Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem, a job he held for six years.

The only job he would have considered leading Davidson College for was the UNC post.

“I can’t imagine any other,” he said. “Even it was a real struggle for me to leave Davidson because Davidson has been such an important part of my life,” adding that it transformed him as both a student and president.

“But … what draws me to the university is its importance to the state of North Carolina, which I also dearly love.”

UNC, he said, is in many ways the state’s economic engine, addressing the needs for stronger and better-educated leaders as the hope for future.

Although Ross has only worked in higher education for three years, as president of Davidson, he counts his years as a UNC law student, his year as an assistant professor at the UNC School of Government, 17 years on the bench, which included teaching new judges, and his years on the UNCG board of trustees as preparation for perhaps the biggest job of his life.

When Sid Batts, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, first heard three years ago that the church’s former elder would become Davidson’s president, he thought it was a “sort of out-of-the box move” for both Davidson and Ross, because Ross had not previously been involved in higher education at that level.

But Batts has heard nothing but good things about Ross’ tenure at Davidson.

“Which means that he was on a fast learning curve, and he obviously got it,” Batts said.

In each of his previous careers, UNC system leaders say, they saw something that mirrored what they needed in a new president.

As a judge, Ross led the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Committee, which resulted in tougher sentences for violent and repeat offenders.

He lobbied for those structured sentencing changes in the General Assembly — the same kind of lobbying that Bowles and others in higher education did to save the UNC system from more drastic cuts this year.

His job at the Reynolds Foundation took him to nearly every county in the state, where he witnessed the needs of people and how they would be affected by the money his organization dispersed.

“This was the man,” Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC Board of Governors, said last week.

Ross is not just someone who can captain the system through current tough times, she said, but one who can lead it to a brighter future. “This will end, and we want someone here beyond this crisis.”

Ross has held positions that have thrust him into the spotlight, yet he never seeks it, his friends say.

Ott recalled taking Ross on a trip one year to the Bob Marshall Wilderness. There’s no access except by bike or horse, and grizzly bears roam free.

Despite the danger, Ross had so much fun that he later went back with his son, Tom Jr., and a photographer was there.

“So he took a lot of pictures of Tom, and lo and behold, Tom gets his picture published on the cover of the Montana wilderness magazine,” Ott said.

That Ott introduced him to the wilderness and Ross was the one who got his picture in a magazine “never seemed quite fair,” Ott said jokingly.

While his jobs have kept him busy, Ross has always found time for his family and friends.

One of the activities he misses is volunteering on the chain gang at Grimsley, where his son went to high school and played football.

“I was on the chain gang before he played and after he played,” Ross said of the team that brings out the chains to measure plays. 

“It was a great way to spend a Friday night because I did it with friends, and there’s nothing quite as fun as high school football.”

A Superior Court judge on the high school football chain gang?

“Smart as he is and as accomplished as he is, one of the things I really like about him is that he does not take himself too seriously,” Batts said. “There is not a sense of arrogance. He’s (a) very … self-deprecating and down-to-earth, funny, witty kind of guy.”

Ott knows that firsthand. He was having back problems while hiking with Ross near Hendersonville. So they had 3-foot-tall donkeys to carry their packs.

Ross was leading them down the trail when the donkey got spooked and took off running, pulling Ross with him.

Ross dug his heels in the trail to try and stop the donkey.

“We refer to that as donkey skiing now,” Ott said.

The sudden rush of students on the Davidson campus lawn early Friday afternoon signaled the end of class.

Bicycles whizzed by, greetings quickly turned into group gatherings and cell phone conversations permeated the air.
It’s not uncommon to see Ross in the midst of this activity.

“You always see him around with his wife or walking his dog or something,” said Caroline Emch, a Davidson senior.

“He’s really easygoing, very nice, very charismatic.”

Ross often attends athletic and other student events. And when he’s having one of those days when he needs a reminder about why he’s in the job, he leaves his office for a chat with students.

“Young people today are amazingly talented and innovative and creative and thoughtful and interesting and inquisitive,” Ross said. “So being around them is inspirational.”

When he takes over the UNC system, he’ll gain 225,000 students spread across the state, but he’ll lose that intimacy.

He said he plans to visit the campuses as much as possible to talk with students, faculty and staff about their needs and to stay focused.

Emch is a part of the class that entered during Ross’ first year as president. Ross starts his new job Jan. 1, but she said she hopes he’ll return for their graduation.

Emch has attended student dinners at Ross’ home. Over pie in the living room or ice cream in his garden, Ross chats informally with them about the usual topics: what’s going on at school, studies and plans after college.

“The type of conversation you would have with a family member or friend,” Emch said.

Under Ross’ leadership, Davidson has eliminated loans from its financial aid packages, a scholarship program has been established for  international students, and the school raised a record $55 million last year during some of the toughest economic times in recent memory.

But for some at Davidson, Ross’ lesser-known accomplishments mean the most.

’Cats on Main is nestled along the town’s main drag. Located directly across from the campus, it sells T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and hats, all bearing the Wildcats name or emblem.

It’s only been open a year, and only because of Ross.

“This is something that he wanted to have and made it come to life,” said Jill Lazarus, the store’s manager.

The store is an extension of the college bookstore in the student union. But Lazarus said Ross had a dream for a store on North Main Street, not just to sell items bearing his alma mater’s name but to increase the college’s visibility.

Many people who visit the store don’t do so just to make purchases. They inquire about the school and town, Lazarus said.

Ross doesn’t think of himself as a leader. He said he’s a hard worker, a consensus builder and capable of identifying problems.

He struggled when he first arrived on the Davidson campus as a student. He felt there were people there a lot smarter than he was.

“I felt a little intimidated. I just — for whatever reason — had difficulty adjusting to my first year at college. My academic performance reflected that.

“I refuse to disclose my transcript, however,” he said, laughing. “Not a public record.”

The moment the UNC Board of Governors took that vote and his fate as the 17th president of the UNC system was sealed, some of those old trepidations returned.

There was disbelief that he was even in the position to be offered the job.

There was a “healthy” degree of fear and anxiety about whether he was capable.

And, “a sense of excitement and energy and adrenaline about the challenge and the opportunity,” Ross said.

He won’t be doing it alone, Ross said. He’ll look to the board, chancellors and trustees at each of the  colleges to guide him along the way.

And he’ll rely on his love and belief in North Carolina and its universities.

“I’ve got a lot to learn, and ... I know that I’m going to have to jump right in, that I’ll make mistakes,” Ross said. “And I just hope people will be patient and understand and know that I’m giving it all I have.”

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com