National Clothesline

Just prior to retiring from the military, he joined the Lion’s Club in Leavenworth, Kansas, and asked a friend of his to keep an eye open for any businesses for sale. He didn’t even care what type.

He was immediately informed of a drycleaning shop available on the market — Harris Brothers Cleaning — and even though he lacked any drycleaning experience whatsoever, he didn’t hesitate to dive in and invest.

Of course, by the time he was ready to take over control of the company in late 1980s, he might have wished he had packed an emergency chute. He had already planned to attend IFI courses in order to learn all the ins and outs of cleaning, but the night before he signed the ownership contract he learned that the shop’s drycleaner had given his two weeks’ notice.

Fortunately, Ross was quite familiar with evasive maneuvers. After all, he had served two tours of duty as a helicopter pilot during VietNam, including one harrowing mission to aid the 101st Airborne that earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross designation.

“I was one of the gunships that was going in and taking out wounded and bringing in ammunition,” he recalled. “Even though we took several hits, we kept on attacking the targets so our slicks could get in and out. We finally got hit. We found out later that it was a 155 marker round. If it hadn’t been a marker round, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Losing oil steadily, and with engine temperatures rising, the team on board had to abandon their attack and make a running landing coming back in.

With such life experiences under his belt, Ross wasn’t one to let a little thing like having no cleaning experience prevent him from successfully running his new drycleaning plant.

Ross earned his wings quickly at Harris Brothers. The drycleaner who gave notice — now a close, personal friend — helped out in the mornings and evenings for a while while Ross taught himself how to spot. He did have one advantage on his side: his aviation maintenance background made him pretty handy in the back of the plant.

“I wasn’t afraid of electricity and plumbing and that type of thing,” he noted. “I did a lot of my own maintenance. Of course, all of the equipment back then was not very complicated.”

Another factor that helped was that Harris Brothers had already been established in the community for over 75 years. It was in a good location and had fostered an excellent reputation for quality and service. Still, Ross was able to add his own imprint to the business.

“I made the determination that people like to do business with people they know,” he said. “That was one reason why I joined the Lion’s Club. I’d always get involved in the local community, wherever I was stationed. I did the same here, but I did it even more. Somebody who is involved in the community is going to draw customers just based on that fact.”

For some, community involvement is a hobby, something to do in their spare time. For Ross, it’s more like a second job — and maybe a third and fourth one, too.

“I enjoy doing it. It’s probably to a fault,” he admitted. “Right now I’m still serving on the highway advisory commission to the state. I’m serving on the IFI board. I’m serving on the SDA board. I’m still active in the Lion’s Club, and being active in this Lion’s Club is something. We adopted a project called the Youth Achievement Center. We bought an old building and gutted it and put it back together to turn it into a youth center for the kids.”

For almost three years, he physically worked every Saturday with hammer and saw doing whatever needed to be done to finish the project.

In addition to those efforts, he has also held leadership positions in his local Chamber of Commerce, the United Way, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and the National Federation of Independent Business’s Kansas Leadership Council.

While he finds community support rewarding in itself, occasionally he receives awards for his efforts, as well. Four years ago, the city of Leavenworth bestowed upon him its “Citizen of the Year” title. In 1996, he was named a Melvin Jones Fellow, the highest honor in Lionism. He also received the Lion of the Year award for 1999-2000.

Long before Ross became such a model citizen, he wasn’t even a U.S. citizen. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1941, he initially moved to the states (in Columbus, Ohio) when he was 17 after he decided not to finish high school.

A year later, he joined the Army in Buffalo, New York. He was sent to Kimpo Air Force Base in Korea in 1960 to work with a map reproduction company. Upon completing his stint there, he was informed that he had a choice of either officer’s candidate school or flight school. It was an easy decision.

“I came back to the states and went to Camp Walters, Texas, the Army’s primary helicopter school,” he said. “I was still not a citizen. I had the number of years in to become one, and while I was in flight school I was called for a hearing. Before I could get to the hearing, I graduated and was sent to New Jersey.”

At that point, Ross elected to take the first Tiger helicopter course for the Army’s brand new gunships. He flew several missions for the missile master in Pedricktown, but it soon was evident that he needed a higher security clearance level, so he finished his citizenship process in 1964.

Just prior to his first tour of duty in VietNam, Ross married his wife, Ellie, in 1965.

Nowadays, she helps him run Harris Brothers along with their son, Ryan. The couple have two other children, as well: Jason and Tyler, who, incidentally, also became a helicopter pilot. He has flown missions in the Gulf War and Iraq.

Following Ross’s first tour of duty in VietNam, he trained with the first Cobra Helicopter program in Savannah, Georgia.

“Once I was finished, I was due for my second tour,” he said. “I actually went to VietNam the second time with the Cobra Training Team in 1969. I was also the Aviation Maintenance Officer, but we were all what we called SIPs — Standardization Instructor Pilots — which means we taught instructor pilots. A lot of time, we were actually on hot missions with students in the aircraft.”

In 1973, Ross was part of a bootstrap program that enabled him to complete his college degree in business administration at the University of Tampa in Florida. From there, he moved on to Pennsylvania for the next two years. He was stationed near Harrisburg, but, for him, it was more like heaven.

“I was the Army Aviation Adviser for the Pennsylvania National Guard. I loved that tour — all the flying you wanted to do,” he laughed.

In 1975, military life suddenly became less appealing when Ross was sent to Ft. Lee in Virginia. He spent time pursuing his military career track, which meant working in logistics and being grounded from his duties as a pilot. By the time he moved to Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas in 1979, he was ready to retire after over 22 years with the Army.

These days, Harris Brothers Cleaners has over 30 employees and four stores, including one located at the Post Exchange at Ft. Leavenworth.

Ross is quick to point out one big reason for his success. He believes he would not have lasted a month, let alone 25 years, without help from trade associations. Since then, he has tried hard to give back to the industry.

“The people that we have on the IFI board and obviously, the IFI staff — the cleaners who have volunteered their time — are all top operators, top professionals who really know what they’re doing,” he explained. “Nobody understands how much IFI does for our industry to protect our businesses.”

Ross has certainly done his part, serving two terms as president of the Heart of America Fabricare Association before helping the organization retool itself to become the Mid-America Fabricare Association. He also played a pivotal role in merging MAFA and LMDLA into SDA three years ago.

Ross was also one of a handful of cleaners who worked with the Kansas DEH to form a state cleanup fund. More recently, he was the key figure in developing a partnership between IFI and NFIB.

Every contribution Ross has made to the industry has helped improve its image, something he sees as a nagging problem. It’s a battle he also wages on the frontlines of his plant.

“I really had to learn how to bite hard and swallow on some of the complaints you get at the counter where you obviously know that you had nothing to do with the problem and then turn around and pay the damn claim anyway,” he said.

Ross also fights back in other ways. He has sponsored a coat drive for the Salvation Army for 20 years and also cleans American flags for free. In fact, he was offended when the military contractually stipulated that he do so.

“I wrote a letter back saying, ‘I won’t sign this. I’m already doing this. How dare you give away what I’m already giving away. How dare you take credit for what I’ve done for 20 years’,” he said.