Download this issue as a PDF - Columbia College - Columbia ...

CLASS NOTES
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
CLASS NOTES
Jon Ross ’83 Proves a Little Help Can Go A Long Way
At 51, Jon Ross ’83
has found a way to
channel his boundless
energy for the
greater good. After successful
careers on Wall Street and in
Hollywood, he founded Micro-
Aid International, a nonprofit
for which he travels the globe
building homes, replacing tools
of livelihood and restoring selfsufficiency
for disaster victims
in far-flung locales.
The mission is simple: to keep
the focus on the victims long
after the world’s attention has
moved on. “No other organization
takes this long-term, handson
approach to helping people,”
Ross says.
Once the initial rush of aid
and press coverage has faded,
MicroAid (microaidinternational.
org) looks for small projects
with the potential for big impact
in hard-hit towns and villages.
The nonprofit has constructed
homes in Sri Lanka and built
canoes and replaced fishing kits
for villages in Samoa. “MicroAid
Jon Ross ’83 and a felled tree, soon to become one of 16 canoes.
PHOTO: TUILAGI ASA
B y Justin DeFreita s
steps in two to three years later
as the NGOs depart for the next
international crisis but without
fully resolving the situation left
behind,” says D. Leslie Winter,
a longtime friend of Ross and a
member of MicroAid’s board of
directors.
Ross’ eclectic journey began
at the College, where he studied
an array of subjects en route to
a degree in urban studies. He
credits his curiosity and appreciation
for different cultures to his
study of anthropology. “It combined
so many elements of my
diverse interests and education:
architecture, human interaction,
art, science, religion,” Ross says.
“I bring a lot of that to the work I
do now, and it has informed my
life along the way.”
One of the most enduring
lessons of Ross’ academic career
came outside the classroom, at
a cocktail party meet-and-greet
with alumni. “An older alum,
maybe 70 years old, spoke about
his varied career, which included
stints in business and philanthropy
— 10 years here, 15 there,”
Ross says. “It made me realize
that you didn’t have to be locked
into any one thing forever. That
really had an impact on me.”
Upon graduation, Ross accepted
a position at the Wall
Street brokerage firm Paine
Webber, then headed west after
a few years and landed a job
as a creative executive at 20th
Century Fox. Dissatisfied with
endless dealmaking that resulted
in few completed projects,
he left in 1989 for New World
Pictures, the small, prolific
studio established by maverick
director Roger Corman. With no
hands-on filmmaking experience,
the one-time major studio
exec began his new career with
that age-old initiation assignment:
a coffee run. He spent
the next year learning every job
in the studio, including electrical
work, camera work, set building
and design. It proved to be a
life-altering experience.
“Growing up in New York
and going to Columbia, you’re
told that you’re going to rule
the world,” Ross says. “I wish
someone had told me it’s really
helpful to start at the bottom
and learn everything.”
From there, Ross forged a 15-
year career as a freelance producer
of television commercials.
Though he was no television fan,
nor had he any love for advertising,
the money and the freedom
to set his own hours enabled
him to pursue interests such as
world travel and volunteerism.
The latter included his work with
the Southern California chapter
of the Achilles Track Club (now
Achilles International), an organization
for people with disabilities
that he’d established in 1987.
Ross ran the club for 20 years,
guiding blind runners in races
and marathons, training other
guides and handling fundraising,
administration, press and outreach.
He also volunteered for
three years with Habitat for Humanity,
earning certification as a
construction crew leader while
building houses for low-income
families in the Los Angeles area.
In 2009, Ross gave up his
television career and combined
his various skills and interests
by founding MicroAid. The
idea stemmed from his travel
experiences as well as from
a 2008 project for which he
was commissioned by a Wall
Street firm to help distribute
relief funds in Sri Lanka, which
was still suffering in the wake
of the 2004 tsunami. When the
project’s funders backed out,
Ross made sure his time and
research would not go to waste,
going solo and raising money to
build houses on the island. Thus
MicroAid was born.
Though Ross has since added
a board of directors, MicroAid
remains largely a one-man operation.
After conferring with village
elders and religious leaders, as
well as local nonprofits and the
departing NGOs, Ross — along
with his board — starts raising
funds. Then, acting as project
manager, he makes a first visit to
the area to coordinate with local
Two villagers paddle new MicroAid canoes across Lefaga Bay.
PHOTO: JON ROSS ’83
organizations and international
NGOs. Once funding is in place,
Ross returns to the site, buying
local materials and hiring locally
to complete the project at minimal
expense.
Most recently Ross helped the
roughly 260 people of Matafa’a,
a remote village on Lefaga Bay
on the southern coast of Samoa,
to replace canoes destroyed in
the 2009 tsunami. The loss had
been crippling, as canoes are
necessary for families to cross
the bay to attend school, to shop
and to catch the bus for the
90-minute commute to jobs in
the capital of Apia. In ordinary
times, villagers would need to
build only a single canoe every
few years and, because of the
rarity of the occasion, the skills
were not necessarily passed
down to the next generation. But
after Ross arrived and secured
the materials, he and the villagers
set up a makeshift factory, building
16 canoes in six weeks. The
elders also used the opportunity
to teach the craft to the younger
generation, several of whom
used their newfound knowledge
to get jobs building canoes in
other villages.
MicroAid, which is based in
Ross’ adopted hometown of
Venice Beach, Calif., currently
raises $30,000–$50,000 per project.
The next venture, scheduled
for this spring, is in Peru, with
projects planned for Burma,
Haiti and Nicaragua.
“The five-year plan is to train
three other project managers
so that we can have multiple
programs operating at the
same time, and to raise at least
$250,000 annually. And, I hope,
to inspire people to help those
in need,” Ross says.
Every dollar donated to Micro-
Aid goes to programs; the overhead
is funded by the board and
by Ross, who doesn’t take a salary.
He funds his own part with
savings from his careers and
from the proceeds of a small
business he founded in 2003:
Soothe Your Soles (soothe
yoursoles.net), cleansing towels
for feet that Ross created and
markets to yoga studios, spas
and resort hotels. “It pays for my
nonprofit habit,” he says.
“Jon is an enthusiastic,
thoughtful person with a methodical
approach to problemsolving,”
Winter says. “He has
never sought personal financial
gain; he seeks to assist others.
He has foregone lucrative opportunities
to do the work that
gives him greater satisfaction.”
MicroAid’s name derives
not only from the size of the
projects it focuses on but also
from the fact that it takes relatively
little money to complete
them. For example, Ross says,
it only costs about $7,000 to
build a house in Sri Lanka.
“A small amount of money
and a small amount of help
can do a lot of good,” he says.
“Just because I can’t build a
hundred houses doesn’t mean
I shouldn’t build one.”
Justin DeFreitas is a Bay Area
writer and graphic artist.
Jim Weinstein ’84: “Karl-Ludwig
Selig was a unique man. He was
not just a scholar but also a teacher
and an adviser. In the days before
coeducation, the Dean of Students
Office on the 200 level of Hamilton
was smaller, and it was adjacent to
his office. The line to see the professor
was often longer than the line to
see the dean or any of his assistants!
He took a tremendous interest in
his students and, in his retirement,
always would talk about which ones
became doctors, professors, lawyers
and other professionals. He had an
amazing memory for names, places,
dates, articles and scholarly research.
“His story from his years before
Columbia is even deeper than his
academic career: as a boy and a
teenager, he was raised in a middle
class family in Germany, but with
the rise of Hitler, his family wisely
decided to leave. He and his family
were some of the last Jews to
escape, [traveling] to the United
Kingdom and then on one of the
last boats from there to the United
States. His family settled in Erie, Pa.,
and he excelled in high school and
got an undergraduate degree from
Ohio State. [Professor Selig] had
tremendous energy and worked
80-hour weeks, or so it seemed. He
also had great empathy for studentathletes,
perhaps because he was
on the swim team at Ohio State
and understood the academic and
athletic burdens of student-athletes.
I also recall that he did graduate
work at Texas and could reminisce
about what Texas was like in the
1960s as well as being on trains
from St. Louis to Austin, including
every stop in between.”
[Editor’s note: See obituary in
Around the Quads.]
Andy Gershon and his wife,
Gail, hosted a well-attended ’83
reception at their home on December
1. Their son, Alex, is a talented
left-handed pitcher who spent
much of the evening showing
my son, David, different baseball
pitching grips. Andy runs the Safe
Haven JV league for which Alex
is a tournament-winning pitcher.
Alex’s sister, Sophie, plays basketball
and her team is ranked 10th
in the country. I spoke with Kevin
Chapman and his son, Ross; Eric
Wertzer; David Einhorn ’86L; Eric
Epstein; Ed Joyce; Steven Greenfield;
and David Hershey-Webb
at the event. David regularly performs
his guitar songs at the Living
Room in Manhattan. Many of us
attended the Columbia-Bucknell
basketball game after the event.
I really enjoyed hearing from
CC baseball great Frank Antonelli.
Frank is president of Empire Sports
Management. He has been involved
with directing major golf events
including the Ryder Cup, Memorial
Tournament, U.S. Open, and Hootie
and the Blowfish Monday After
the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am.
Frank’s company also represents
international golf clients including
Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey and
the Golf Channel’s Charlie Rymer.
He earned a master’s in sports administration
from Ohio and worked
for years with Jack Nicklaus. Frank
lives in a beachfront community in
Charleston with his wife, Debbie
(a former NC State basketball star),
who announces college and WNBA
games for ESPN, CBS and FOX
Sports Net. He has three children,
Joey (17), who competes in AAU
basketball; Frankie (15), who
competes in the Special Olympics;
and Patrick (11). Frank has set up a
charity on Frankie’s behalf, Frankie
and Friends, to raise awareness
about special needs children. Antibullying
is another of the charity’s
themes. Frankie is scheduled to
speak at St. John’s University on
April 22 to promote the charity. He
regularly speaks in front of thousands
of people. Patrick is involved
with travel soccer and basketball.
Frank keeps in touch with Kurt
Lundgren (former CC baseball
pitcher and New York Mets prospect),
a lawyer living in Nanuet,
N.Y., and with John McGivney, who
works for the IRS on Long Island.
Other CC friends include Frank Lofaso
’83E, Beemie Bajraktari ’92, Bob
Flock, Glenn Meyers ’84 and Mike
Dichiaro ’84, all of whom regularly
attend Glenn’s annual charity golf
tournament in New City.
Gary McCready writes, “Our
1983 Facebook reunion page can be
found at facebook.com/Columbia
1983. It is very basic, so please
forward recommendations to me to
spice it up (or to correct typos). Additional
admins are welcome; just
email me. Please ‘like’ it and pass it
on to all you know in ’83 in the College,
Barnard and Engineering.”
While we’re on the subject of
reunion, make a note that the dates
are Thursday, May 30 –Sunday,
June 2. Look for information at
reunion.college.columbia.edu. And
to be sure that you receive all the
updates from the Alumni Office,
update your contact information
at reunion.college.columbia.edu/
alumniupdate.
I attended the 2012 Alexander
Hamilton Award Dinner, honoring
Jonathan D. Schiller ’69, ’73L,
managing partner of Boies, Schiller
& Flexner, in November. David
Boies was seated at the table next to
me. I now know how my son feels
when he spots David Wright at a
NYC restaurant.
Jon Ross, founder of MicroAid
International (see Alumni Profile in
this issue) writes, “With so much
tragedy in the news [as 2012 came
to a close], you may not have seen
that a category 3 cyclone (sustained
SPRING 2013
80
SPRING 2013
81