By James Kulp

2020 marks the end of the long, storied career of Collegiate Upper School history teacher Dr. Brian Ross. Ross is a man of many interests, including American history, sports, travel, and, above all, learning and teaching. Along with being a highly accomplished historian and published author, he has been an instrumental part of the history department and Collegiate community since 2005. 

Ross developed a fascination with history and an interest in teaching both during his time earning his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and later masters from the University of Michigan and while on a trip to Europe, where his studies continued. After returning to Ann Arbor, in addition to historical research, he decided to try teaching students to see if he enjoyed it. As opposed to the labor-intensive nature of research, which he still finds stimulating, he found the daily interactions with students to be enriching and decided to pursue a teaching career. Ross heard about Collegiate while teaching at other independent schools, and he has been part of our community for 15 years.   

During his time at Collegiate, he has taught numerous history courses, including survey courses for 9th and 10th Grade; History of the 1970s: Race, Culture, Sport; and Honors US History, in which I am currently enrolled. Ross’s field of expertise is in US history,  especially the Progressive Era, makes him well-positioned to teach our US history survey courses. In 1997, he held a conference with filmmakers, teachers, scholars, and students to discuss Jackie Robinson’s debut in the major leagues. This conference sparked his interest in sports history and the subsequent Race, Culture, Sport history elective.

Ross is known to do extensive external research for both his classes and his own interest. In 2014, he published his first book, Baseball’s Greatest Comeback, about the history of baseball in American culture, and specifically the 1914 Boston Braves and their impact on the game. He has now embarked on another book about 1979’s Super Bowl XIII and how it combined all aspects of American culture in the 70’s. He plans to look at the game as a prism to study the 1970’s. Ross will include information about the experience of players’ involvement in the Vietnam War, drug abuse, feminism, and more, all through the lens of one game. His extensive research on this topic has aided him in teaching the 1970’s course at Collegiate, adding new information as he comes across it on his own. 

Ross brings not only vast knowledge on the historical topics which he has taught for so many years, but also a love for teaching and the students here at Collegiate. He notes that “teaching is never technically easy, but it is often rewarding, which makes it easy in a certain respect.” He has developed a love for a subject that many write off as mundane. One of his favorite parts of teaching is when students engage and ask him tough questions, something that has kept him in the teaching business for so long. He says, “you would think a teacher might get bored teaching the same course over and over again, but students ask me questions I hadn’t thought of before, or come with different perspectives.” This is what makes Ross and teachers like him successful. 

These past few months of remote learning represent precisely the challenges that make teaching so difficult yet rewarding in Ross’s eyes. He notes that “especially now, I have to really change my style of teaching.” He has always enjoyed the challenges teaching brings, perhaps none more difficult than being forced to teach virtually for the first time. He states that “it’s kind of aggravating at times, but it’s challenging in a good way.” Embracing the difficult, less glamorous aspects of teaching is nothing new to Ross, and in that way he has adapted the new virtual medium as well as any.  

When asked what makes for a successful day at Collegiate, Ross says it can come down to one moment. He values the classes in which a visible improvement in understanding occurs in his students. Additionally, acts of kindness, especially those of gratitude which occur so often between students and faculty, always improved his days. He also enjoys conversations with colleagues from different departments. In these conversations about teaching and life, he has discovered just how much he values teaching. Ross says that in stark contrast to a teacher who is just seeking to pay their mortgage, all of the teachers at Collegiate share the same passion he has for bringing out the best in their students.

Given time to reflect, Ross conjured an extensive list of the Collegiate faculty who influenced him over the years. He “will always remember a number of present and former faculty members: Joel Nuckols for his intellectual brilliance and soaring spirit, Lynn Haw for her patience and warmth, Mary Artz for her creativity and kindness, Barbara Anderson for her counterintuitive insights and independent-mindedness, Neil Weiser for his sense of irony and passion for history and politics, Weldon Bradshaw for his determination and good will, and the late Bill Reeves for his nuanced sense of spirituality, and his infinitely profound wisdom.” As a student of Ross’s, I can say with confidence he will be remembered, among other things, for his never-ending pursuit of knowledge and dedication to his students. 

In retirement, Ross plans to move back to Michigan this summer primarily to spend more time with his daughters and sons in-law, grandchildren, and his “lovely wife Toni,” who has been “supportive during my entire teaching career.” However, he will be “perhaps busier than ever, just in different ways.” Ross is continuing to work on his book on Super Bowl XIII and the aspects of American culture it encompassed, a movie script about the motley crew of Boston Braves and their comeback season in 1914, and his own personal research of American history. Additionally, if plans allow, he is seeking to work part-time at the University of Michigan and to come full circle by mentoring young prospective history teachers. While still lamenting the time he will no longer spend in the Collegiate community, he appears to be quite excited for his future prospects.

His final words of wisdom and advice to Collegiate students are ‘“to go beyond yourself.” He explains that “the word ‘education’ comes from a Greek word that means to draw out,” and he hopes that our faculty and students will continue to draw out the best in one another. Thank you, Dr. Ross, for doing that for all of us!

Featured image credit: TWIAtv.