John Ross, 1947 – 2009

We almost passed over a “Free Stuff” sign over Interlake and 42nd this Sunday, and would have been the worse for it. We didn’t pick up any shirts or plates or records, but we did learn a little something about a Wallingford resident who recently passed away.

The Estate Sale was over, and now, as the weekend waned, everything left was free.

When we entered the house, it was fairly picked over, wires left hanging where appliances had been, but the sheer volume of books lining all the walls told something of who had lived here. The boxes of old vinyl showed another facet, more so than the clothing, the couch, the jacket, the musty scent of an old carpet. The walls added bits and pieces: clipped New Yorker cartoons in the study paying teasing attention to the life of an author suggested a career, and in the dining room, a black and white photo, with a hand-lettered sign above it: “The Estate of John Ross”.

Passing through the kitchen (which had suffered at the hands of the gleaners), we went out back and found two people talking: John Ullman and Autumn. Though Autumn, who was running the sale, didn’t know John Ross personally, she was respectful, asking that the picture of John Ross in the dining room not be removed until the sale was complete (“he’s still here”). Ullman did know Ross, though, and shared a bit of his history with us:

John was involved in radio semi-professionally, interviewed people for the radio. He was particularly interested in folk music, the folk music revival of the ’50s and ’60s. He interviewed people like Peggy Seeger and Ewan Maccoll. He worked with KBOO in Portland, worked with the listener supported stations around here, including KRAB. He was very involved with the Seattle folklore society and was a board member of that organization in the late ’70s and into the ’80s. He was involved with Northwest Folklife and was involved in helping them with their archives. He also did an annual show at Folklife called Band Scramble, where everybody mixed up their instruments and played a piece of music with an instrument that wasn’t their own, not the instrument they usually played, that was often very funny.

He wrote computer books for a living, for companies like Microsoft, there are some of those lying around the house. The other thing he did was make cider, there’s a lot of cider paraphernalia back there, as well. And he was a cook, he was a good cook.

He lived by himself and kept to himself here in the neighborhood, but had a huge number of friends in the folk music community and with whom he made cider.

The Mudcat Cafe, an on-line folk music community, added “John was a philosopher, a contributor, an iconoclast and a source of knowledge; and he will be missed by the many friends he made through all his different interests.”

John Ross was born in Brookline, MA in 1947, graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis and went on to serve 4 years in the Coast Guard.

According to the obit listed by his publisher, No Starch, “John Maxwell Ross died April 6, 2009, of natural causes at his home in Seattle following a sudden heart attack. An only child, he was preceded in death by his parents.”

Ullman indicated that many of Ross’s extensive vinyl collection would end up in libraries, and not lost or discarded.

If you knew John and would like to share a story, please feel free to use the comments section of this post.