The Rev. Dr. Robert R.N. Ross

Biographical Sketch

August 2009

The Rev. Dr. Robert R.N. Ross is Interim Minister of First Unitarian Church of New Bedford (Massachusetts), where he is responsible for all ministerial and pastoral functions.  Dr. Ross is a Unitarian-Universalist minister in Final Fellowship and a U.U.A. Accredited Interim Minister (AIM).  In August 2009, Dr. Ross completed his second years as Interim Minister of All Souls Church in Braintree, MA; in August 2007, Dr. Ross completed his second year as Interim Minister of First Church and Parish in Dedham, MA; in August 2005, Dr. Ross completed his second year as Interim Minister of First Parish in Plymouth MA.  He has also served as Interim Minister at the Eliot Church in South Natick, MA (2002-03), First Parish Church in Taunton, MA (two years, 2000-02), the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth, MA (1999-2000), All Souls Church in Braintree, MA (1998-99), and First Parish in Cohasset, MA.  In each of these ministries Dr. Ross has successfully used a methodology he developed (Value Analysis) in assisting congregations to resolve historical issues, identify areas of current and future need, and develop strategies and action teams for addressing them.  Dr. Ross’ ministry connects this work with congregations in transition to preaching that offers spiritual and intellectual challenge and a strong emphasis on traditional pastoral work, both within the congregation and with the community beyond.  Dr. Ross is a certified EMT (Massachusetts and National Registry), an active member of the Bristol-Norfolk County Critical Incident Stress Management Team, and a former member of the Massachusetts Corps of Fire Chaplains.  Dr. Ross has also served on the Ballou-Channing District Board of Directors.  In his three most recent interim ministries, Dr. Ross did extensive pastoral work with their elderly members.  While at Plymouth, Dr. Ross also helped First Parish join with two other congregations in the area to provide shelter for homeless men over the severe winter. 

A former Harvard University Teaching Fellow and Philosophy professor at Skidmore College, Dr. Ross is currently adjunct Professor in the Religious Studies program at the University of Massachusetts – Boston, and at Starr King School for Ministry/Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, where he has taught courses in Unitarian Universalist History.  Dr. Ross received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1973, his S.T.B. from Harvard Divinity School in 1968, and his B.A. from Amherst College in 1963.  Dr. Ross has received numerous grants and honors, including awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Anti-Defamation League.  Dr. Ross is listed in the Directory of American Scholars.

As a consultant for the Unitarian-Universalist Association (UUA) Department of Ministry, Dr. Ross designed the process now used by the new Regional Subcommittees of the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee to evaluate students considering the ministry.

In the fall of 2008, Dr. Ross released a major publication, Walking to New Orleans: Ethics and the Concept of Participatory Design in Post-Disaster Reconstruction (publisher’s flyer attached).  Among the complexity of issues it addresses is an analysis of an underlying religious understanding that has defined the relationship between the natural world and human society.  The book presents an ethical model for how this relationship can be reconstructed.  In exploring the connections between engineering technology and social justice, including discussion of the work of John Rawls, the primary goal of the book remains constructive: to propose a practical approach for the collaborative reconstruction of natural environments and neighborhoods in a manner that preserves human dignity.   

During a time when American society has been preoccupied with other matters, the book has received very positive responses.  Apart from endorsements on the book, the following are representative:

“. . . a fascinating and important review of how society might unwittingly set itself up for failure.  It is a powerful book.”

                        Donald Norman, author of The Design of Future Things,                                                        and Things That Make Us Smart.  

                       Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science, University of California,                                              San Diego;  Professor of Computer Science, Northwestern University

“I will definitely order this book.  As a local promoter of ethics in life and integrity in reconstruction we are greatly pleased to see others address a national loss of attention to the devastation that has affected our city and our religious communities.”
                        Rev. Jim VanderWeele
                        Community Church Unitarian Universalist
                        New Orleans, LA

The book is not a text but is currently being used by the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy, Tulane University Law School. 

Dr. Ross is on the staff as a Senior Consultant to the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in Washington, DC, where he recently served as evaluator and advisor to a project sponsored by the Department of Justice to improve juvenile detention and correctional facilities through instituting performance-based standards (PbS).  Dr. Ross’ assistance to the PbS Project helped it win the prestigious ‘Innovations in American Government’ award from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University and the Council for Excellence in Government.

Dr. Ross has also developed a curriculum in Ethics in the Public Service for the National Academy.  This work was presented at the Seventh Annual Conference on Applied Ethics at California State University Long Beach in 1996.  As a NAPA consultant, Dr. Ross developed the program methodology to reorganize the Health Resources and Services Administration (part of HHS), helped the National Security Agency develop valid Performance Indicators to meet Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requirements, and evaluated the National Science Foundation’s new criteria for awarding major grants.  In 2005 Dr. Ross was part of a team evaluating the effectiveness of EUR/ACE, the US Department of State’s Office of the Coordinator for Foreign Assistance to all FSA and SEED countries (former Soviet Bloc countries in Southeast Europe and Central Asia).

Dr. Ross has also consulted and taught for the Center for Quality of Management, a consortium of major corporations addressing new developments in Quality Management Systems associated with MIT and based in Cambridge, Helsinki, and Stuttgart.  In various contexts, Dr. Ross has taught in France, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Israel, the UK, Australia, Vietnam, the Cook Islands, and Brazil.

Prior to his ordination in 1996 at the Murray Unitarian-Universalist Church, Attleboro, MA, Dr. Ross was a Consulting Engineer and Manager of Quality Education and Collaborative Technologies at Digital Equipment Corporation.  While there, Dr. Ross developed an international program to train engineers in user interface design, and holds several design patents related to the management of complex networks.  In the area of Quality Management, Dr. Ross developed processes to help organizations undergo transition or restructuring; designed programs in mediation, dispute resolution, and business ethics; developed collaborative work technologies and criteria for successful problem-solving teams.  Some of this work has translated into the pastoral context of   Dr. Ross’ ministries: crisis counseling in many different contexts; helping congregations extend their participation in networks to provide services in family support, visitation of the elderly, and other areas of social concern within a local community such as shelters for the homeless; programs addressing issues relating to death and other forms of loss; promoting dialogue within ethnically and culturally diverse communities.

From 1973 - 80, Dr. Ross was a Philosophy professor at Skidmore College, where he also served as Chairperson of an Interdisciplinary Program in Religious Studies, and Senior Academic Advisor to University Without Walls.  The latter included administering and teaching in New York’s Comstock (Maximum Security) Prison Program as well as other work in adult education.  While at Skidmore, Dr. Ross was actively involved with student counseling, crisis intervention, and the Religious Life Program.  From 1970 - 71, Dr. Ross was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and a member of the Higher Degrees Committee.  Dr. Ross served in the Army (Army Security Agency).

In addition to his book published this past fall, Dr. Ross is the author of numerous other publications: a book in the area of Philosophical Theology (The Non-Existence of God.  Linguistic Paradox in Tillich's Thought.  Toronto Studies in Theology.  New York and Toronto: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1978), portions of several anthologies, and a book of verse (Pulses.  Forms of Life in an Electronic Age.  Sagamore Beach, MA: Encircle Publications, 2004).  A new book is under contract with Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR (A Diversity of Spirit.  Engaging a Religiously Plural World), and a series of essays (Of Time and Eternity.  Essays at the Intersection of Religion and Cosmological Theory) is forthcoming.  In addition, Dr. Ross has authored over sixty scholarly articles in professional, academic, and technical journals.  Dr. Ross has also given many papers at American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, as well as other national and international conferences, most recently addressing issues in ethics, technology, and structures of meaning.  Dr. Ross has been invited to deliver an address at the upcoming American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Montreal in November on the subject of nanotechnology and human longevity in the area of Science and Religion.

Dr. Ross is married to Deanne Ross, a Civil Rights Attorney.  Deanne has worked as Senior Trial Attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice, as Special Counsel to the State Legislature of Louisiana, advising on voting redistricting, and is currently Special Counsel to the City of Springfield, MA.  Deanne also provides legal counsel and research to the United States Civil Rights Commission.  Dr. Ross has two grown children and one grandchild.  Dr. Ross leads a Cajun and Zydeco band, les cigognes, which has performed at many cultural and arts festivals, including the New England Folk Festival, as well as benefits for public service organizations.  Dr. Ross enjoys sea kayaking, surfing at various locations around the world, cross country skiing, and four mile runs with his Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen, Buddy.  Dr. Ross spent a previous November in Vietnam on a volunteer project helping to build a school in a village in the Mekong Delta and teaching at the Tieng Giang Province Teachers’ College.  More recently, on another volunteer project, Dr. Ross taught EMT (emergency medicine) skills to government, hospital, and prison workers in the Cook Islands.  In the fall of 2002, in 2004, and again in 2006 Dr. Ross has taught a course in Ethics and Emergency Medical Services at the Institute for Emergency Medical Education.  In June 2008 Dr. Ross taught skills of Critical Incident Stress Management to hospital personnel in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.