Community Service

Few people embody the spirit of community service better than Hampton Bays resident Robert Ross, who recently retired after decades of making his home a better place for its residents.

Ross spent the last 42 years, before retiring from his position late last month as vice president of community and government relations at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, fighting for and giving back to an adopted community that he loved.

His retirement came just as Stony Brook put the finishing touches on a standalone emergency room in East Hampton, a project that Ross, by all accounts, fought for and helped shepherd through its various stages for the past decade. He knew that it would not only save the lives of residents in distress on the eastern half of the South Fork but also would ease the stresses of volunteer emergency first responders and ambulance crews who would spend four hours or more round-trip bringing patients to the emergency room at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital in Southampton Village. The new emergency room is both a lifesaver for patients and a life-changer for volunteers, who have Ross to thank for helping to get it over the finish line.

Before working at the hospital, Ross was the deputy supervisor of Southampton Town, under then Supervisor Skip Heaney, from 2002 to 2007, helping Heaney and the Town Board at the time craft legislation that would impact members of the community. Ross was always an advocate for the people and his adopted hometown of Hampton Bays — and always worked closely with volunteer firefighters and first responders, ensuring that the government always had their best interest at heart.

A fateful trip out east with friends from his home in the city in 1978 — his first time to the “Hamptons” — resulted in his growing love for the community and a number of summers spent here before he finally adopted it as home, buying property in Hampton Bays that he eventually built a house on.

From that point on, he joined a number of civic groups in Hampton Bays and his passion for the community grew, leading to decades of tireless advocacy for the hamlet and then, eventually, all the people of the East End.

Now, at 77, he and his husband, Lawrence Roth, set their sights on enjoying retirement — but Ross promises to stay engaged and be a resource if needed. And, hopefully, he will be. The South Fork has benefited greatly under his watchful eye and will continue to do so well into the future.