Bill Ross Receives Alumni Appreciation Award

December 12, 2017

William O. Ross graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a BS in geology in 1960. More than 50 years later, on December 12, 2017, Professor Larry McKay presented Ross with a special Alumni Appreciation Award.

Ross attended UT on the GI Bill after working at Alcoa and serving in the United States Army. He had a long and successful career at the United States Geological Survey working in the Smithsonian Institute on the Mall in Washington, DC. After retirement, he had a second career as a geologist with the Virginia Department of Transport.

Ross has been a long-time supporter of the University of Tennessee. His support has created several professorships in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and a student field camp scholarship. Most recently, he provided one of the first major donations to the EPS Strong Hall fund to support students and research in the new geoscience building. The Paleontology/Sedimentology/Structure teaching lab and the undergraduate student teaming room were named in honor of his support and generosity over the years.