Donald Henry Ross

Donald Henry Ross was born on October 14, 1923, in Modesto, California, and came to the law after a distinguished career in military aviation. In 1941 he joined the Royal Air Force and was sent to England, where he trained on the Spitfire, before transferring to the U.S. Army Air Forces in September 1942 and receiving his commission as a second lieutenant. As a fighter pilot in World War II he was credited with destroying two enemy aircraft in aerial combat before he was himself shot down, captured, and held as a prisoner of war.

Over the decades that followed, Ross rose to senior command in the U.S. Air Force. He took command of the 479th Tactical Fighter Wing at George Air Force Base in 1966 and later served as director of Special Projects in Washington, D.C., as commander of the 347th Tactical Fighter Wing in Japan, and as commander of the 327th Air Division at Taipei Air Station in Taiwan. He was promoted to major general in 1972 and retired from the Air Force in 1974. Alongside his service he pursued a lifetime of study, earning a Bachelor of Science in industrial management from the University of Southern California in 1953 and a Master of Science in international affairs from George Washington University in 1965.

After his military retirement, Ross turned to a second profession in the law. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific in 1982 and was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada that same year. He went on to practice as an attorney in private practice in Carson City, Nevada. Donald Henry Ross died on November 2, 2016.