Ross, MDA President, CEO Dies

[Guest guest]

ROBERT ROSS, MDA PRESIDENT & CEO, DIES

http://www.mdausa.org/news/060606bob_ross.html

TUCSON, Ariz. June 6, 2006 — Ross, chief executive of the

Muscular Dystrophy Association for 44 years, died Monday night in

Tucson at the age of 86.

Ross had been with MDA since 1955. He joined the national voluntary

health organization as its public information director and was named

executive director in 1962.

MDA, which has its national headquarters in Tucson, fights more than

40 neuromuscular diseases through programs of services, research and

health education.

Ross became an MDA vice president in 1973. In 1991, he was elected to

MDA's Board of Directors and named senior vice president. He was

designated president and chief executive officer of the voluntary

health organization in 2001.

Entertainer Jerry , MDA's national chairman, said, " Bob Ross was

the driving force that gave MDA its energy and its tremendous level

of quality. Those of us who knew him well realize that it was his

vision that shaped MDA into the powerful force it has become. "

added, " He was also a dear personal friend to me and to

thousands of people with neuromuscular diseases. MDA and I will miss

him tremendously. "

Lois R. West, chairman of MDA's Board of Directors, said, " Bob Ross

was a remarkably dedicated leader, who developed MDA from its early

days as a handful of local chapters into its status as one of the

nation's and the world's best-known health organizations. "

West added, " For more than four decades, he coordinated MDA

activities related to fund-raising, publicity, medical and

humanitarian services, disability policies and above all, medical

research. In doing so, he constantly kept the attention of a

nationwide staff and an army of 2 million volunteers focused on MDA's

overriding mission -- the search for treatments and cures for

neuromuscular diseases. "

MDA Chief Operating Officer Jerry Weinberg, a colleague of 49 years,

said Ross was an outstanding executive and a dear friend.

" It was a great honor and privilege to work with Bob Ross in building

MDA into an internationally recognized nonprofit agency, " Weinberg

said. " In addition to being an unmatched leader and humanitarian, Bob

was my best and closest friend. "

A native New Yorker, Ross worked as a radio writer and publicist

before joining MDA.

He was on the staff of the U.S. Coordinator of Information for the

Voice of America and the U.S. Department of State from 1942 to 1951.

In that capacity, for several years he wrote the English-language

version of " America Calling Europe, " a broadcast on world affairs

that was beamed out worldwide each morning via the BBC in London.

He's credited with suggesting that the agency be renamed " Voice of

America. "

ROSS' LEADERSHIP OF MDA

As MDA's public information director, Ross recruited dozens of

business leaders and celebrities to help the Association, and

nurtured good relationships with the press. In 1966, he persuaded

Jerry to star in an MDA Telethon on Labor Day -- the first

broadcast of what's become the nation's largest and best known

televised fund-raiser and an American Labor Day tradition.

In the 1970s, Ross represented MDA on the President's Committee on

Employment of the Handicapped (now the President's Committee on

Employment of People with Disabilities). In 1992, the Ross

Scholarship for Rehabilitation Medicine was established by the Newman

Family Foundation at the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

Under Ross' guidance, MDA developed the most comprehensive program of

medical and community services of any voluntary health agency in the

country, including a network of 240 hospital-affiliated clinics

providing first-rate diagnosis and follow-up care for people with

neuromuscular diseases.

Also among his innovations were the initiation and expansion of MDA's

summer camp program for children with neuromuscular diseases;

development of the " Love Network, " some 200 television stations that

annually broadcast the Jerry Labor Day Telethon; and

establishment of a research grant program that draws many of the

world's top scientific minds to the neuromuscular field.

Beginning in 1950, MDA's research program built a body of knowledge

of muscle function and muscle disease from the ground up, and

pioneered in the field of genetics and gene therapy. With the world's

top scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, heads of neurology

departments at major universities, and innovators in gene therapy

among its grantees, MDA operates several major research centers and

37 ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) research centers in the United

States and Europe, while funding investigations by some 400

scientific teams worldwide.

MDA-funded scientists discovered the genetic causes of some two dozen

neuromuscular diseases, including the most common forms of muscular

dystrophy and a form of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).

In the 1970s, MDA researchers developed a lifesaving blood-exchange

treatment for myasthenia gravis and inflammatory myopathies. Under

MDA's leadership, life expectancy for most people with neuromuscular

diseases has been extended through physical therapy, surgery and drug

treatments.

In 2006, MDA began safety trials of a groundbreaking gene therapy

procedure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common and most

fatal childhood form of MD.

Also this year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the

marketing of Myozyme, a new treatment for Pompe's disease, a rare

genetic disorder also known as acid maltase enzyme deficiency. MDA

research provided the foundation for development of the treatment,

which saves the lives of infants born with the disease, and MDA

assisted in trials of Myozyme.

In 1990, Ross presided over the move of MDA's national headquarters

from New York to Tucson, Ariz. Less than two years later, the

Association erected a new headquarters building on donated land in

Tucson, using funds raised in a separate capital campaign, along with

a $1 million grant from the state of Arizona. The move saved MDA

several million dollars in operating costs.

MDA received numerous awards and recognitions under Ross' leadership.

In December 1996, MDA was recognized by the American Medical

Association with Lifetime Achievement Awards " for significant and

lasting contributions to the health and welfare of humanity. "

Ross is survived by a sister, Charlotte Zand of Great Neck, N.Y., and

five nieces and nephews.

The MDA Ross Memorial Fund has been established to receive

contributions in his memory. Gifts can be sent to 3300 E. Sunrise

Dr., Tucson, AZ 85718