Ross donates to St. Joseph’s Foundation’s 2024-25 campaign

Submitted photo Longtime area businessman and philanthropist Mike Ross, at right, presents a donation to Skip Gjolberg, left, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital.
BUCKHANNON — Mike Ross, President of Mike Ross, Inc., recently made a “generous” donation to the St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Foundation’s 2024-2025 campaign, hospital officials said.
The campaign, “Your Family’s Health is Our Mission” is “dedicated to meeting family’s healthcare needs from birth throughout the senior years.” The campaign funds projects and needs throughout the hospital.
“I would like to say a sincere thank you to Mr. Ross,” Skip Gjolberg, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital, said in a press release. “His gifts and generosity over the years have helped us to continually improve the quality of healthcare that we provide.”
Projects that may be considered for funding, according to St. Joseph’s, include cardiac-rehab, upgrades to patient rooms, needs for mom and new babies, imaging and ultrasounds, educational tools for hospital staff and other needs “as they arise.”
A long-time supporter of St. Joseph’s Hospital, WVU Medicine, and a former board member of the Hospital’s Foundation, Ross has donated to the hospital’s campaigns in the past, including the 2023-2024 “Our Vision-Your Health, Advancing Surgical Services at St. Joseph’s Hospital,” the 2021 campaign that focused on women’s health, the “Every Heartbeat Matters” campaign and more.
Ross, a Coalton native, has made many generous donations to the community in the past, including to Davis & Elkins College’s “Creating Home: It Takes a Village,” which funded the construction of the new Freshman Village. Ross is a D&E alumnus and received the D&E Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2015.
A generous donation was also given by Ross to the Emma Scott Garden Club’s Rosie the Riveter Statue campaign. Ross, a member of the Garden Club himself, asked the community to match a $1,000 donation he was giving toward the purchase of the statue, which will feature the names of Rosies from across West Virginia.
After college, Ross worked as a coal miner and heavy equipment operator. In 1971, Ross and his business partner, Robert Wharton, started Ross & Wharton Gas Company, which provides livelihoods for several full-time employees and many independent contractors throughout West Virginia to this day.
Having helped build thriving businesses, in 1992 Ross was elected to represent West Virginia’s 15th Senatorial District in the state legislature, where he would hold a seat for 12 years. He held office again in 2009, when he was appointed to fill the West Virginia House of Delegates seat left vacant by the death of Delegate Bill Proudfoot.