Damon James Gross was born July 29, 1947, in Grand Island, to Everett and Mildred (Foreman) Gross, and passed away May 23, 2022, at his home in Waterloo, Iowa, at the age of 74.
Damon thrived with a Bachelor's Degree in mathematics from Doane College, followed by Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from the University of Iowa. He taught philosophy on a temporary or part-time basis at seven colleges and universities, mostly in Iowa. For most of his working career, he was a software analyst for IBM. Active in the Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalist fellowship, Damon has lived a very sociable life, and played trumpet and French horn. He laughed easily and loved to make other people laugh. Damon's lifetime passions were baseball and the economic philosophy of Henry George. While he never played for MLB, in retirement he served as Program Director of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
He is survived by his sister, Donne Jaffe (Lyle) of Winston Salem, North Carolina; brother, Daniel Gross (Anne) of Solomons, Maryland; nephew, Alden Gross (Ruth) of Severna Park, Maryland; niece, Joy Irwin (Keith) of Winston Salem; three grand-nieces and a grand-nephew.
A memorial service will be at Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa, at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 11. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation (https://schalkenbach.org/).
