Celebration of Life Live Stream:
Events
The Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2026 starting 11:00AM EST at the Howard University School of Law Dunbarton Chapel, located at 2900 Van Ness St, NW Washington, D.C. 20008. For those unable to attend the service in-person, you can participate remotely by viewing the live stream of the service (please scroll up to see the video).
Obituary
Clathan McClain Ross, a journalist, scholar, and public servant of extraordinary talent and reputation passed away on February 4, 2026, at his home in Ashton, Maryland following notable careers in government and the private sector. Early in his career as a journalist, he covered the dismantling of racial segregation in the South, particularly in North Carolina. His service with the United States Information Agency (USIA) took him to the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, over the course of thirty-two years in the United States Foreign Service.
Clay, as he was best known among friends, was born on May 17, 1930, to Isaiah and Bessie Ross. The youngest of three, he followed his brothers Lloyd and Lennon. He was a member of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church and attended Hillside High School. Later he enrolled in North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central), where he was an editor and assistant to the news director of the college newspaper, The Campus Echo. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he pursued a master’s degree in English language and literature at the college. This was interrupted, however, in 1953 when he was inducted into the U.S. Army, where he served for two years. Upon his discharge, the economic burdens of his family’s modest household would require him to set aside his studies in order to assist his family.
His ardor for the use of language and writing pointed toward a career in journalism. Early in his career he worked as a “stringer,” contributing articles to various news agencies, including the New York Times. In 1953 he joined the Carolina Times newspaper as a reporter and later became the managing editor. It was in this capacity that he covered the important issues of the persecution of African Americans, racial violence, segregation, desegregation, and the inspiring fight for civil rights and freedom. His passion for journalism derived not only from the importance of reporting factual events, but also from its power to illuminate our common humanity by revealing the moments of joy and pain experienced by all.
As a reporter, Clay was deeply moved by the unjustified gas chamber execution of Raleigh Speller, Clyde Brown, and the Daniels cousins (Bennie and Lloyd) which he eye-witnessed. When Patrica Stephens of Florida was imprisoned for protesting against segregation his reporting on the event was central to fomenting demonstrations against segregation amongst both Caucasian and African American students in Durham, Chapel Hill, Salisbury and other counties in North Carolina.
In 1962 he married his inamorata Genie O. Moore of Nashville, Tennessee. It was an enduring union built on a common faith in God, a measured approach to life, affection for ballroom dancing, and an appreciation of formal entertaining, music, and the theatre.
In the early 1960s, he joined the USIA, launching a career that would take him away from the American South to distant places around the world. It began in Calcutta, India, followed by tours in Washington D.C., Viet Nam, and several assignments in Africa, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Mali, Congo-Kinshasa, and Congo-Brazzaville. The family spent nearly two decades in Africa. They also spent time in Sri Lanka, and Clay, without family, served briefly in the United Arab Emirates on a temporary press assignment.
During his assignment in Viet Nam, Genie worked as a medical technologist under the aegis of the U.S. Department of State in Bangkok, Thailand, where first daughter, Kathyrn, was born. Their second daughter, Felicia, was born in the U.S. during a Washington assignment for the Rosses.
Abroad, Clay worked as a journalist and press officer, exhibiting media skills as well as management ability in the handling of press operations often involving visiting journalists and correspondents. Additionally, as a public affairs officer he coordinated and cultivated educational and cultural programs and directed U.S. public diplomacy at posts. Throughout his service in the diplomatic field, he was commended for his ability to understand local perspectives and to gauge evolving currents. He was frequently praised and rewarded for his charismatic and mild but confident demeanor in establishing networks in host countries which enabled him to more effectively pursue policy goals. Clay and Genie, were well known for hosting formal and informal engagements that forged strong bonds between Americans and the local community. On many occasions, such as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s visit to Zambia in 1976, Clay was specifically seconded to Lusaka from his own assignment to coordinate the visit by American correspondents. This combination of journalistic talent and press agency skill combined to stamp Clay as a public affairs officer of the finest rank.
It was this reputation which Clay carried with him in joining the public relations and university advancement staffs at Howard University upon his retirement from government in 1995. It was an ideal evolution for a scholar-diplomat who enjoyed the company of intellectual professionals. His work included strengthening the bond between alumni and the institution through public liaison, media relations, the development of proposals, and furthering contacts with broad and relevant audiences. For a time, he extended these same services to Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
In retirement he continued to shepherd his children, conducted research, and edited papers and speeches delivered to him by colleagues and family. He avidly composed letters to friends about topical issues. A creature of habit he took daily walks in his forested neighborhood, tended his vegetable garden, and engaged in conversations with friends about politics and society. He found sanctuary in listening to classical music, playing instruments, and reflecting in his garden on what he described as this “stubborn, beautiful world.”
A final silence fell over Clathan M. Ross, at the age of ninety-five, on the evening of February 4, 2026 while enfolded by his adored and adoring family at his home in Ashton, Maryland. He is survived by his wife of sixty-four years, Genie M. Ross; daughters Kathyrn Ross and Felicia Ross, niece Maura Lynne Ross, nephew Arnold Ross, and other relatives and friends.