History Department’s Ross Room moves to Lentz Hall

The Ross Room is dedicated to the former chair of Carthage’s History Department and popular history professor — Nelson Peter Ross.

Originally located in the H. F. Johnson Center for Fine Arts, the new Ross Room reopened this fall in Lentz Hall at the center of the relocated History Department.

Nelson Peter Ross joined the Carthage faculty in 1964. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1970 and led the department into Phi Alpha Theta, the national History Honor Society.

A devoted teacher and administrator, Prof. Ross once said: “I have no hobbies. Carthage is my work and my hobby.” He died unexpectedly in 1977 at the age of 39.

Along with a scholarship for top history students, the Ross Room was endowed with generous support from the Ross family. It was their way to continue sharing and building upon Prof. Ross’s dedication to history and Carthage.

With a striking portrait of Prof. Ross at the center of the room, along with its own private library and plaques of past history award winners, the new Ross Room is the perfect place for students to find inspiration and immerse themselves in history and the humanities.

According to John Leazer, the current chair of the History Department, “The new Ross Room is a unique and wonderful seminar room, but we hope that it continues to be a hub for students and the center of a vibrant History Department here at Carthage. It is what the Ross family wanted.”