{"id":674,"date":"2022-09-07T07:35:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T14:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/?p=674"},"modified":"2024-06-25T08:32:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:32:27","slug":"one-of-the-greatest-americans-of-our-generation-the-subject-of-my-next-biography-j-d-ross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/?p=674","title":{"rendered":"“One of the Greatest Americans of Our Generation”\u2013The Subject of My Next Biography: J. D. Ross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Michael N. McGregor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When James Delmage Ross<\/strong> died suddenly on March 14, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt<\/strong> mourned his passing by telling the country it had lost \u201cone of the greatest Americans of our generation<\/strong>,\u201d a man whose \u201csuccessful career and especially his long service in behalf of the public interest are worthy of study by every American boy<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet \u201cJ. D.,\u201d as he was called by everyone who knew him\u2014from the president to senators to children in his neighborhood\u2014is virtually unknown today. Even in Seattle, where he was once the city\u2019s most powerful\u2014and popular\u2014figure, those who recognize his name know it only because a dam and lake on the Upper Skagit River were dedicated to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Map of Seattle City Light hydroelectric projects on the Skagit River, including the dam and lake named after J. D. Ross.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the Depression years, however, as the nation suffered the aftermath of predatory practices by private companies, Ross became known across the land as a tireless advocate for publicly-owned electrical power. FDR held him in such high regard, he chose him to sit on the Securities and Exchange Commission, to keep tabs on the country\u2019s private power companies, and then to serve as the first superintendent of the Bonneville Power Administration<\/strong>, one of the most important strategic positions in the years leading up to World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By then, Ross had built Seattle City Light into one of the world\u2019s model municipally-owned power systems<\/strong> and championed changes to both the production and distribution of electricity that reduced power rates to a fraction of what they had once been. He had also toured the country for years, making the case for public control over the nation\u2019s electrical grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FDR quote on J. D. Ross’s tomb.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If the country had listened to him\u2014or he had lived longer\u2014there\u2019s no doubt our power system would be in much better shape<\/strong> than it is today and people everywhere would understand FDR\u2019s words of praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A self-taught electrical engineer who rose from humble beginnings to become the ideal civil servant and a close friend of the 20th<\/sup> century\u2019s most powerful president, Ross is the kind of figure whose story\u2014and example\u2014we need today. Which is why I\u2019m pleased to announce that I’m writing the first biography to ever be written of him<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Seattle newspaper’s report on the tributes and crowds at Ross’s funeral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My work on Ross is being supported, in part, by the Oregon Historical Society\u2019s 2022 Donald J. Sterling Senior Research Award in Pacific Northwest History. In the weeks ahead, I\u2019ll be posting more about my finds in the months of research I\u2019ve already done, as well as updates as the research and writing continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you follow me on Instagram<\/a> or Facebook<\/a>\u2013or go to my personal website, michaelnmcgregor.com<\/a>\u2013you\u2019ll see images in the coming days from Ross\u2019s hometown of Chatham, Ontario, <\/strong>once known as the Black Mecca because it served as a terminus for the Underground Railroad. His journey from Chatham to Seattle began in 1897 when he walked\u2014walked!<\/em>\u2014from Edmonton, Alberta, to the Klondike gold fields after a doctor told him his lungs were failing and he needed more exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for future updates!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Michael N. McGregor When James Delmage Ross died suddenly on March 14, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt mourned his passing by telling the country it had lost \u201cone of the greatest Americans of our generation,\u201d a man whose \u201csuccessful career and especially his long service in behalf of the public interest are worthy of study […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_swt_meta_header_display":false,"_swt_meta_footer_display":false,"_swt_meta_site_title_display":false,"_swt_meta_sticky_header":false,"_swt_meta_transparent_header":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,99,103],"tags":[326,323,324,321,320,195,325,62,322,328,327],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-j-d-ross-biography","category-latest-posts","category-nw-people","tag-black-mecca","tag-bonneville-power-administration","tag-chatham","tag-franklin-roosevelt","tag-j-d-ross","tag-klondike-gold-rush","tag-ontario","tag-oregon-historical-society","tag-seattle-city-light","tag-skagit-river","tag-u-s-power-grid"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806.jpeg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806.jpeg",915,1280,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806-214x300.jpeg",214,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806-768x1074.jpeg",768,1074,true],"large":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806-732x1024.jpeg",732,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806.jpeg",915,1280,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806.jpeg",915,1280,false],"mailpoet_newsletter_max":["https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_5806.jpeg",915,1280,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"michael n. mcgregor","author_link":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"by Michael N. McGregor When James Delmage Ross died suddenly on March 14, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt mourned his passing by telling the country it had lost \u201cone of the greatest Americans of our generation,\u201d a man whose \u201csuccessful career and especially his long service in behalf of the public interest are worthy of study…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1337,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions\/1337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingthenorthwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}