He attended Manual Training High School, Brooklyn, New York City, then studied for degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering at Cornell University.
[3] He gained distinction as a photographer — a picture he took of a three-horse fire-engine team was syndicated throughout the world[4] — and as an athlete (winning the intercollegiate and national fencing championships).
[citation needed] After graduating from Cornell in 1911, he joined General Electric and worked under Sanford Alexander Moss[3] on steam, gas turbine and centrifugal compressor development.
Neither was outstanding but the extensive basis of experimentation gave rise to the Studebaker straight-eights, beginning with the President Eight, announced in January 1928.
[7] While at Studebaker, Roos and Stanwood Sparrow collaborated with the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company to develop a "thin wall" bearing for use in automobile engines.
[18] For the Jeep Station Wagon, Willys' first passenger car after World War II, Roos developed a version of the "planar" suspension he had created at Studebaker.
[21] On 12 February 1960, Roos was returning by train from a meeting in Reading, Pennsylvania, to his home in Bronxville, New York, when he fell ill.