This is one of an occasional series intended to paint a cumulative portrait of our Jewish community.
Individuals for this column are selected at random from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation community database. The Chronicle does not have access to donor information, or contact members of the community with regard to their giving habits.
Today we focus on educator Jim Ross.
“Ugly Jim” sounds like a terrible and hurtful childhood nickname. But to Jim Ross, it’s a sign of friendship, affection and respect.
For the past 20 years, Ross has been known as “Ugly Jim” to hundreds of summer campers and students whom he has influenced and inspired.
Ross, a lanky 58-year-old whose eyes sparkle when he talks about his work, enjoyed a long career as a middle school teacher in Cedarburg.
Ross also spent 14 summers as the assistant camp director for Rainbow Day Camp. For the first couple of years, in fact, “it was a family affair,” said Ross.
His wife, Carol, taught art at the camp, and their two sons — David, now 29, and Michael, 34 — spent summers as campers, counselors and aides. Michael became the music leader, a role that helped propel him into his career as the artistic director for the Madison Youth Choirs.
It was that first summer that Rainbow camp director Lenny Kass anointed Ross “Ugly Jim.” Today, people still recognize him as “Ugly Jim” wherever he goes.
Upon hearing that nickname “people not in the know marvel at why anyone would call him that. He’s so attractive inside and out,” said his wife, Carol. “Jim showed people what a good sport he could be, what fun he could be, by embracing that nickname.”
Rainbow Day Camp was also where he began one of two unusual collections: Beanie Babies and Grovers — the monster from Sesame Street.
The last one started because “I can imitate Grover,” Jim said with a smile. He would read to his students in his “Grover” voice, and they soon began giving him Grovers as gifts in all forms and sizes. “I even received a Grover Christmas ornament,” he said.
Fast track to teaching
A native of New York, Ross found his way to Wisconsin when he entered the business school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He had hoped to work in retail management upon graduating, but it did not take him long to realize he was “not enthralled” with business school.
He switched to a major in Spanish, a language he always loved, owing in part to his high school summers spent living in Mexico as part of the “Experiment in International Living,” a precursor to the Peace Corps.
It was during his freshman year that he met a co-ed from Whitefish Bay, Carol Pasch. They were married in 1969.
The newlyweds settled in Milwaukee and Carol began teaching at Cedarburg High School. Jim knew that he, too, wanted to teach, but he did not have the degree.
His mother-in-law, Sylvia Pasch, found the answer. She discovered a program at UW-Milwaukee catering to non-education majors interested in teaching. The two-year program included two internships, and Ross emerged with a master’s degree.
His first internship was at a new school in Mequon, Lakeshore Middle School. One of his students was the daughter of the Cedarburg school system’s principal — and, coincidentally, Carol’s boss — and he recruited Jim for his first real job, teaching middle school.
That “first” job lasted for 36 years at what became Webster Transitional School, a school that served as a model for middle schools nationwide.
“Webster started as an ‘open concept, multi-age team teaching environment,’” explained Ross. “Educators from as far away as Germany and Australia came to the school to observe our team approach.”
Webster was named for Arthur Webster, the school’s first principal. “I was the last teacher at Webster to have actually known Art Webster,” Ross added.
Longtime members of Congregation Shalom, the Rosses team-taught eighth grade religious school, and twice they were co-directors of the religious school program.
Carol loved teaching with her husband. “We play off each other’s strengths,” she said. “Jim is more the performer,” which has helped Carol learn to be “more comfortable, more open” with students in her English classes at UW-Milwaukee, where she has taught for about 20 years.
He served as synagogue president and on the education committee, and he and Carol co-chaired Mitzvah Day four times. They currently serve on the social action committee, for which Jim cooks and serves a monthly meal at Agape Community Center and does food sorts at the Hunger Task Force.
In his spare time, he enjoys biking and traveling with Carol. These days they frequently travel from their Bayside home to Madison to see their two grandsons, Ethan, 3, and Elliot, 6 months.
Every Tuesday evening the couple can be found dancing. They took swing-dancing lessons for years and are now taking ballroom dance. Carol described Tuesdays as “sacred dancing” nights, and said of her husband: “He can really dance!”
What has made Ross most proud? “When I learned — maybe years later — that my students appreciated me, that I influenced their lives,” he said.
For example, on a recent spring break, Ross received a call from a former student, now a mother of three living in Des Moines, Iowa. “I just wanted to thank you,” was the message.
This past spring, Ross sat with his team teacher and her spouse at Ross’ retirement dinner from Cedarburg. The spouse was a former student. Ross was astounded when this man announced his gift of $10,000 to a newly created education fund in Ross’ name.
This is the Jim Ross Author-in-Residence Fund, created to bring in authors to help gifted and challenged seventh-grade writers. The first author will be coming to Cedarburg in October.
Ross’ retirement this past summer was brief, indeed. He is now teaching seventh grade part-time at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School.
“Things worked out for me to transition out of retirement,” Ross said in an interview at the school. “I am enjoying the part-time schedule.”
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