The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ross from Flat Lick and Pineville, Kentucky, Merrill Ross was born December 28, 1919. He started college at Kentucky State University and completed both a bachelors and masters in science from Pittsburg State College.

Ross moved to Topeka, Kansas to accept a teaching position in the public schools when he received his call to serve in the summer of 1944. Having already earned a pilot's license from a civilian pilot training program at Pittsburg State, Ross successfully pursued entrance into the Tuskegee Pilot Training program. Just as he was being prepared to be sent overseas, World War II ended.

After the war, Ross returned to Topeka, Kansas where he experienced the desegregation of public schools as a faculty and administrator in unified school district (USD) 501. Later Mr. Ross became the first African American to serve as principal of a predominantly white school in Topeka, Kansas. He was also the only African American to teach classes in all 4 African American schools in Topeka: Washington, Buchanan, Monroe, and McKinley.

From 1946-1954, Ross taught with the schools; from 1954-1962 he was principal of Washington Elementary; from 1962-1974 he was principal of Avondale West Elementary, and from 1974-1977 he was principal of Sheldon Elementary School. He retired as principal of Quinton Heights in 1985.

Ross was active in local, state, and national education professional associations and was inducted into the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame in 1992. That same year he received the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary International, of which he had been a member since 1967. In 1993 Highland Park South Elementary School was renamed in his honor as Ross Elementary School.

Ross married Barbara Ann Jackson on June 12, 1951. They had two children, daughter Kerry (Ross) Fowle and Brian. Merrill Ross passed away February 14, 2012.