a look at...
photography by win wolloff Ann McKeel Ross and Dr. Jay Ross
Arts enthusiast Ann McKeel Ross and her husband Dr. James
(Jay) Ross are avid collectors of contemporary art who met at
Western Kentucky University. They will have been married for 64
years this August. Their three sons went to Berkeley Preparatory
School and Jesuit High School, where Jay was active in the
Dad’s Club at both Tampa schools. Ann and Jay were the first
members of the University of South Florida’s Graphicstudio,
which encourages new possibilities for artistic practice.
The Rosses have loaned part of their personal art collection to
the Florida Gulf Coast Museum, Polk Museum of Art, the Stuart
County Arts Council Gallery, the Brevard Museum of Art, the
Albany, (Georgia) Museum, the Atlanta College of the Arts Gallery
at the Woodroffe Center, the Brandon Cultural Center, the Atlantic
Center for the Arts, the Ringling Museum, the Tampa Museum
of Art and the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.
Ann, a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was involved with
the Tampa Bay Art Center, which later became the Tampa Museum
of Art. She helped create the early version of the Gasparilla
Festival of the Arts and has been chair of the Arts Council of
Hillsborough County, vice chair of the Florida Arts Council and
on the board of the Southern Arts Federation.
Jay, a graduate of the University of Louisville School of
Dentistry, has served as president of the Hillsborough County
Dental Society and as a trustee of the Florida Dental Association.
He was the team dentist for all of the sports at the University
of South Florida for 25 years and is a fellow of the Academy
of General Dentistry and a fellow of the American College of
Dentists.
At what do you excel?
Ann: I graduated from the University of South Florida
with a degree in fine arts and a major in photography
and ceramics and at one time considered myself to be a
creative photographer and potter.
Jay: I had a thriving and very successful dental
practice for 35 years with many appreciative patients.
What provides you with pleasure?
Ann: Being with our wonderful family: Cary and
Sandy, Brian and Wendy, David and Jim, our five
granddaughters Kelly, Katherine, Ann, Caroline,
Meredith and our great-grandson, Cooper.
Jay: I am an avid sports fan especially for the Bucs,
USF Bulls, Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals.
Who is your role model?
Ann: My deceased parents and two sisters were
the ones I emulated. Currently, I have many people I
admire and respect greatly such as Pam Iorio, Judy Lisi,
Betty Castor, etc., and my longtime adviser and special
friend, Art Keeble.
Jay: My brother, Al Ross, who is a very successful
businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist and
weekly volunteer at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in
Nashville.
94 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2017
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Ann: My entire life I have heard my mother say
“Don’t say anything about someone if you cannot say
something nice.”
Jay: A favorite high school teacher left teaching to
become a dentist and he urged me to enter the dental
profession, and I have never been sorry.
Why do you do what you do?
Ann: I believe I have had the two best jobs in Tampa
as director of Community Relations at the University
of South Florida and vice president of Advancement at
the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, now the Straz
Center for the Performing Arts.
Jay: Being retired gives me the flexibility to do just
about anything I wish to do.
What don’t people know about you?
Ann: I rode three-gaited and five-gaited horses in
horse shows.
Jay: I played the piano for weddings and receptions.
What are your favorite words of wisdom?
Ann: Success is not counted by how high you have
climbed but how many you have brought with you.
Jay: I heard this from a speaker at a dental lecture:
“It is better to do the harder right than do the easier
wrong no matter your task.”
What is your motto?
Ann: It is not a motto, but I have a few sayings . . .
“It is what it is,” “This too shall pass,” and this one I
truly believe, “Age is just a number.”
Jay: “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”
How do you think other people would describe you?
Ann: I hope they would think I am a kind and caring
person.
Jay: Dedicated to the dental profession.
What would you like to do that you have never done?
Ann: Run a marathon. I ran the Gasparilla 15K and
races throughout the state and was training for a
26-mile race when I broke my foot.
Jay: Be a NASCAR driver!
How would you describe yourself?
Ann: A supporter of the visual and performing arts.
Jay: A detail-oriented happy retiree.
What would you like to be able to do that you
can’t do?
Ann: See more of our great-grandson Cooper, who
lives in Seoul, South Korea, with his parents who teach
at the American School.
Jay: Solve all the technological problems that crop up
on our computers, smartphones and other instruments
everyday. 9