The Voice of Southwest Louisiana August 2017 Issue

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SWLA feature story Carl W. Ross, Sr. M.D. You, and Your Health This is my introduction to you the public and my fellow citizens of myself and my family. It is my desire in the coming months to not only provide meaningful medical articles to you, but to encourage you to daily not only rely on what we as physicians tell you, but to actively try to take care of your physical and mental health and wellbeing. There is no one out there who knows you better than you know yourself, or can provide the first line of defense to care for your good health and wellbeing better than yourself. When your body tells you, something is “Not Right” seek immediate medical attention. In the coming months, I will discuss various matters concerning medical health illnesses, preventive measures you can take to assist in maintaining your good health, and various treatments currently available for different medical disorders. I wish to introduce myself to you with a little history concerning myself and my family. I am Carl W. Ross, Sr., M.D., and was blessed to be born into a family of three children with parents who had a passion to serve their fellow men and women. I am the third child of Dr. Charles W. Ross, Sr. and Mrs. Lucille (Payne) Ross. I have two siblings, Mr. Charles W. Ross, Jr. of Capitol Heights, Maryland, and Mrs. Carolyn Ross Wilson of Takoma Park, Maryland. From an early age, we were taught to treat everyone with respect among our peers, our school, and our church. Our father, Dr. Charles W. Ross, Sr., was born in New Iberia, Louisiana, the only son of Rev. Henry Clay Ross and Mrs. Eliza (Castillo) Ross. His father was not only a Baptist minister, Pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Crowley, Louisiana, but was also an educator in the Crowley, La. (Acadia Parish) school system. He married Mrs. Eliza (Castillo) Ross, who was also an educator in the school system. In later years, the school in which Rev. Ross taught and was the Principal would bear his name Henry Clay (H.C.) Ross High School. Upon integration of the school system, H.C. Ross High School was merged with Crowley High School, and today exists as Crowley High School. This, however, did not prevent the graduates of H.C. Ross High School from gathering from all corners of this country essentially every two years to celebrate the roots of their education, and the legacy of Rev. H.C. Ross. This celebration continues to this day. H.C. Ross Elementary continues to this day to educate the youth of Crowley, Louisiana. Our father’s sister, the late Mrs. Jeannette Ross May, was a graduate of Southern University and A.&M, College in Baton Rouge, La., with a Master’s Degree from Prairie View A.&M. University in Prairie View, Texas. She was the school Librarian and women’s basketball coach at H.C. Ross High School, as well as the organist and choir director at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Crowley, La•• She was married to the late Mr. David L. May, a graduate of Southern University and A.&M. College in Baton Rouge, La., who became Principal at H.C. Ross High School, and was elected along with The Honorable Joseph A. Pete, Sr. in 1954 to the Crowley, La. City Council, as Louisiana’s First Black Aldermen and in the Deep South itself. The Honorable David L. May and The Honorable Joseph A. Pete, Sr. served on the City Council with The Honorable Edwin Edwards in Crowley, Louisiana, who would go on to become elected as Governor of the State of Louisiana. Our father, Dr. Charles W. Ross, Sr., after graduating from and receiving his Degree from Southern University, Baton Rouge, La. entered Howard University Medical School in Washington, D.C •• While at Howard, he 12 August 2017 WWW.THEVOICEOFSOUTHWESTLA.COM Volume 5 • Number 1
met our mother, the late Mrs. Lucille (Payne) Ross, a graduate of Miner Teachers College in Washington, D.C., who was teaching in the Washington, D.C. school system. Our mother was the daughter of the late Mr. Surphrane Payne, who worked in the Library of Congress and Mrs. Estelle (Lewis) Payne, who also taught in the Washington, D.C. school system. Her grandfather, Mr. Eugene Raphael Louis (Lewis), was born in Havana, Cuba and married her grandmother an American citizen, and became a naturalized American. As a family, we take great pride in our African American and Cuban Heritage. Our mother often told us how her father would take her and her siblings to the United States Capitol Building to watch the Inauguration of the Presidents. Her brother and one sister passed away at early ages, but her remaining sister the late Mrs. Katherine Payne Carr, also a graduate of Miner Teachers College, taught school in the Washington, D.C. school system for over forty years. Our father and mother returned to Louisiana to Lake Charles, La., and he established his medical practice here in 1932. He practiced medicine here for 57 years, providing health care to the people of Lake Charles, and delivered over 3,000 babies. My brother, Charles W. Ross, Jr., is a graduate of Sacred Heart High School here in Lake Charles and Howard University in Washington, D.C. After serving two years in the United States Army, he returned to Washington, D.C., and received his Master’s Degree from American University in Washington, D.C. He taught Chemistry at Cardozo High School, Washington, D.C., and was Department Head of Chemistry at Bladensburg High School in Bladensburg, Maryland. His wife Mrs. Barbara (Thomas) Ross was educated in Washington, D.C. and New York City, and provided health care as a Registered Nurse to the citizens of the Washington, D.C. and Maryland areas. They are both retired, and have two daughters Ms. Rhonda Ross, a graduate of West Virginia State University, who is a teacher, and Mrs. Andrea Phillips, a graduate of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, and is a Nurse Practitioner in the Washington, D.C. area. They have two grandchildren. My sister Mrs. Carolyn Ross Wilson, is a graduate of Sacred Heart High School in Lake Charles, La., Xavier University in New Orleans, La., and has a Master’s Degree from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., a music major, an accomplished pianist and an organist. She taught in the school system in New Orleans, La., and upon moving to Washington, D.C. taught at Lincoln Junior High School and at Cardozo High School in the music department as Director of Choirs. She later became Principal of The Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., from which she retired. Her husband, the late Mr. James D. Wilson was a graduate of North Carolina Central University, in Durham, North Carolina. He was Director of Bands at Lincoln Junior High School, and later at Dunbar Senior High School in Washington, D.C. They have a daughter, Ms. Charlise Wilson and two grandchildren. Their daughter is also a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, and teaches in the Washington, D.C. area. With ancestors and siblings, who had obviously chosen fields of work and service to improve the health and education of the citizens of their respective cities, it was very easy for me to decide the course that I wished to follow in life. I also am a graduate of Sacred Heart High School in Lake Charles, La., and benefited from the vision of Ms. Eleanor Figaro and Ms. Mary Ryan, who saw the need for education in our community, and established Sacred Heart School. Then with the maximum assistance of Saint Katherine Drexel, Foundress of The Sisters of The Blessed Sacrament, who used her fortune from the Drexel Estate in Pennsylvania, and sent her Nuns as instructors not only to Sacred Heart, but also to Xavier University, New Orleans, La. and throughout the South and West, bringing into fruition the excellent education that we received. Our faith was also nurtured simultaneously by the Priests of the Society of The Holy Ghost. After graduating from Sacred Heart High School, I entered Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology Pre-Med, and was Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army through the ROTC Program at Southern University. I then entered Howard University Medical School in Washington, D.C., and upon graduating from Howard University with my Medical Degree, received an award at Honors and Oath Day for research done with a faculty member in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine for establishing base guidelines for Pulmonary Function Studies among African American youth. After an Internship in Pediatrics at Freedmen’s Hospital, now The Howard University Medical center in Washington, D.C., I entered the United States Army as a Captain in the Medical Corps. My first assignment was to the 121 Evacuation Hospital at that time in Seoul, Republic of South Korea working in the areas of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and General Medicine. I received an Army Commendation Medal for the medical service rendered to United states soldiers and their families stationed in the Republic of South Korea, and citizens in the city of Seoul, South Korea. My second assignment was at Fort Belvoir, Virginia serving as a General Medical Officer. Upon the completion of my military service I married Mrs. Mary Ann (Barnes) Ross, who is a graduate of North Carolina A&T University and has a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Rutgers University, who was working at The National Institutes Of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. I joined the medical practice with my father for nearly ten years before he retired. Combined with the 57 years of medical care rendered by my father and my 38 years of service here, our medical practice has provided medical care to the residents of Lake Charles for 95 years of our lives. My wife and I have been blessed with four children, who in their own areas of endeavors, continue to render service in their various professions. Mrs. Michelle Nicole Taylor, our oldest child, is a graduate of Howard University and has her Master’s Degree from Howard. She resides in Maryland with her husband Mr. Kevin M. Taylor, graduate of the University of Maryland, and has a Master’s Degree from Volume 5 • Number 1 WWW.THEVOICEOFSOUTHWESTLA.COM August 2017 13
Page 1 and 2: August 2017 Vol 5 No 1 SWLA WOMEN I
Page 3 and 4: editor’s By Brenda Hill Our commu
Page 5 and 6: SWLA news Editor's Note: This is th
Page 7 and 8: SWLA WOMEN IN BUSINESS The place wh
Page 9 and 10: Caring for Aging Parents with Diabe
Page 11: COUNTERPOINT VACCINES and AUTISM In
Page 15 and 16: Dr. Carl W. Ross, Jr., M.D. Family
Page 17 and 18: We Start With Nature We believe tha
Page 19 and 20: Faces of The Voice By: Tori Hebert
Page 21 and 22: You can’t always predict the weat
Page 23 and 24: conversation about healthcare. Plea
Page 25 and 26: ADVENTURES of the Lake Back to Scho
Page 27 and 28: Small & Emerging Business Developme

The Voice of Southwest Louisiana August 2017 Issue

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