June Pitt Ross

05/02/1931 – 03/10/2012
June Rosa Pitt Ross passed away peacefully on March 10, 2012 at Mt. Baker Care Center where she was so well cared for in her last days. She was 80; born May 2, 1931, in Taree, New South Wales, Australia, the second of three children born to Bernard and Adeline Patti (Nind) Phillips, all of whom have predeceased her. She attended Gosford High School, Gosford, NSW, where she was an active competitive swimmer and elected ‘Captain’ of her class. June went on to the University of Sydney to earn BSc, PhD, and DSc degrees. She was awarded two post-doctorate studies opportunities, an ’1851 Scholarship’ to study at Cambridge University in the UK or an American Association of University Women Scholarship to study in the United States. She chose the AAUW scholarship and studied at Yale University at the Peabody Museum of Natural History where she met Charles, her husband of 52 years.
June was a Professor in the Biology Department at Western Washington University for 37 years and was Chair of the Biology Department for several years. She retired as Emeritus Professor in 2004. June greatly enjoyed teaching and worked at challenging both undergraduate and graduate students to work through problems fully and to excel in answering questions directly. She was more than pleased with their results. She also served several years on the WWU Faculty Senate and was President of the Senate for one term.
June’s special interest was marine biology and especially bryozoans (moss-animals) which form a major part of marine fouling communities. She published extensively (more than 160 articles) on these organisms in various scientific journals and received many awards for her work. Much of her research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund, and the Bureau for Faculty Research at Western Washington University. She enjoyed travel and her interest in bryozoans took her too many parts of the world to collect specimens for her own collection and to study other collections. These included a number of trips around the U S, the Bahamas, Canada, the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, most countries in Europe, the Soviet Union, Japan, New Zealand, and China.
June belonged to a number of scientific societies. For several years she served on the Council, and then as President, of the International Association of Bryozoologists. She also was active in the Paleontological Society and served as on the P.S. Council and
for 6 years was P.S. Treasurer. In addition, she was instrumental in the planning, implementing, and establishing the local Family Planning Council, and its successor, Planned Parenthood of Whatcom County (now Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood). She served as the first director of the P.P. clinic which was located in the former St. Lukes Hospital.
June led a very full and productive life, was well travelled, and was a devoted, loving wife and scientific colleague. Her quiet, infectious enthusiasm will be greatly missed by her many coworkers, students, friends and especially by her husband. A memorial in celebration of June’s life will be held at the Roeder Home, 2600 Sunset Drive in Bellingham on Saturday, May 12th at 1 PM.