Red Cross Promotes Jewish Field Director for Developing Extensive Program in Alaska

The promotion of Morris Gross, one of the Red Cross Jewish field workers, to the position of training supervisor of the Red Cross field staff for the Northwest with headquarters at Fort Lewis, Washington, was announced here today. The announcement issued by the Red Cross headquarters here, reads:

“From far-off Nome, Alaska, comes the story of how ‘out of thin air,’ a resourceful Jewish boy serving as a Red Cross field director, created an extensive recreational program for American troops in the frozen wastes at the top of the earth. When, in June, 1942, Morris Gross, 39, of Oakland, California, arrived in Nome, he found only bleakness and ‘plenty of nothing.’ With his own hands, ingenuity and rugged pioneering spirit, he not only built a physical plant, but developed a program which today requires the services of the following Red Cross personnel: a club director, an assistant, two recreational workers, a hospital worker and a secretary. In recognition of his services, the Red Cross has just promoted him to the position of training supervisor of the Red Cross field staff for the Northwest with headquarters at Fort Lewis, Washington.”

Gross is among many Jewish young men and women serving overseas in the uniform of the American Red Cross. Before coming to the Red Cross, Gross was director of refugee resettlement project of the Oakland Jewish Federation.