Hired as Manager for Education and Documentation for the Lane County Regional Information System (RIS) he also moonlighted for Linfield College, teaching computer science.

He became an activist opposed to the Vietnam War (he was one of the "Buffalo Nine" group of defendants), and worked on behalf of the political prisoner Martin Sostre (Heineman 1993, p. 163).

(McQuiddy 2006, p. 76) Described as "the big one that got away," the conservative press in Buffalo portrayed Ross as a Maoist and atheist who was "scurrilously critical of U.S. policies in Vietnam."

(Cardinale 1998, p. 6) Ross's unabashedly leftist and at times strident political position may seem at odds with his paintings, which are imbued with a sense of poetry and calm.

Eventually moving to Tucson, he founded the Tao Te Ching Society and taught tai chi in city parks.

Adopting taoism as his outlook, Ross emphasized the four taoist virtues ("remote, foolish, cranky, and poor") and the five excellencies ( Chinese medicine, martial arts, calligraphy, painting, and philosophy).

His talents are evident in the portrait of his wife Angela, entitled Arrivo a Bologna, which was considered one of his best: "subtle, tender, suggestive, spare in composition and palette."

This work has the unflinching directness that characterizes all of Ross's portraits, an approach that is aided by his tendency to choose models who themselves express confidence and strength.

After his work was rejected from the annual Mayor's Art Show in Eugene, Ross planted an easel outside of the exhibition's reception as a gesture of public protest.

He was joined by other artists whose works were similarly rejected and who ultimately formed their own alternative exhibition, the Salon des Refuses, which has been held every year since 1991.

They made their first trip to Italy in 1991, attended a "Satellites in Education" conference in Bari, and then spent one month exploring both the popular destinations, such as Rome, Venice and Florence, as well as lesser known areas along the Adriatic and in the north.

(Livengood 1994) As a student of the philosophy and writings of the Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, in June, 2002, Ross presented a paper, entitled "Global Technology Education in the Context of The Gramscian World View," before an international economics conference in Rome (Delener 2002, p. 1035) The conference was organized by the Global Business and Technology Association.

While he often chooses the wilder views not favored by "postcard painters," each of his subjects nevertheless reveals the mark of man, the evidence of human habitation and integration into the land.

Ross's painting style has been influenced by Abstract Expressionism, particularly the work of Willem de Kooning and Richard Diebenkorn.

His painterly style utilizes a technique borrowed from Francis Bacon (mild distortions) but, as seen in the Portrait of Carlo Bianchi, it also references photography and computer imagery.

He approaches such subjects without a shrill, messianic desire to foment action, but to work with the idea of expressing an abstract notion of social harmony.

So, Ross's subject matter is strong, but restful, while his style and handling of paint convey a gestural energy that keeps each canvas lively.

Working quickly with an economy of expression, Ross has created multi-figure Italian beach scenes in a style he calls American verismo.