Charles Philip Gross was born in Brooklyn, New York on 14 March 1889, the second son of Frederick Charles Gross and Elizabeth Stoetzer Gross. As a boy he had been thrilled by the spectacle of the Corps of Cadets marching in review on the Plain at West Point. It became his ambition to be worthy of acceptance into the Corps of Cadets and to dedicate his life to the service of his country.
His early education was in Brooklyn’s Public School 85 and Boys High School. He found that appointments to West Point were scarce and difficult to obtain, so he entered Sibley College, Cornell University in 1906, still hoping that one would open up. Almost four years later he was offered a principal appointment by Congressman C. S. Law. He accepted it immediately and was told to report to the Class of 1914 in March 1910. His request to delay his arrival to attend graduation at Cornell was refused. Later, in 1921, Cornell proffered him his degree in Mechanical Engineering.
In those years the classes in USMA were small and the student body numbered about 600. The bonds of friendship of classmates and others during those four years in the fortress on the Hudson were strong and gave him pleasure all his life.
After graduating in 1914, standing third in the order of merit, and commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, he married his boyhood sweetheart, Eleanor M. Hubach. Ella and Charlie were to be together for the following sixty-one years. Their first station was Texas City and the year of the devastating Galveston Flood. Thence they went to Engineer School in Washington, DC and on to Vancouver Barracks on the eve of the U. S. entry into World War I. He commanded Company D of the 4th Engineers until they left for overseas. He kept ties with these men all his life and attended their reunions frequently.
With the declaration of war, the joint contributions of Cornell and West Point combined to give the Army Engineer Corps a well-rounded young officer capable of handling assignments that would have commonly gone to older men. He commanded the 318th Engineers of the 6th Division, first taking a battalion overseas; then, commanding the regiment, he led it in the occupation of the Gerardmer sector where he won the Purple Heart for bravery. He took part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive as one of the youngest colonels in the war, remaining in the occupation until June 1919 when he reassumed the grade of captain.
Between wars his assignments covered fortifications in the New London district, harbor work at Los Angeles, the survey of the Nicaraguan Canal, river canalization, and flood control in the Rock Island district. “But,” he said, “the most valuable preparation received in this period for what lay ahead came to him, he thought, from fathering five children who not only brought problems of supply and movement, but of outright battle!” He thoroughly enjoyed his young family and together with the softer influence of Ella, the simple pleasures of hiking, picnicking, and sports are happy memories of our family life.
“In World War II,” he writes, “my energies were devoted to the formation and command of the newly organized Transportation Corps that carried men and supplies from the point of origin in the U.S. to the points of destination in all theaters of the world.” As shipping was the key to world strategy, this embraced participation in the high level conferences of chiefs of state. In September 1941, he went on a special war supply mission, the Harriman-Beaverbrook Mission, to London and Moscow. Later, just a week before Pearl Harbor, returning alone by way of the Philippines, General MacArthur spoke to him of his vulnerable position and had camouflaged his planes and airfields. In contrast, General Gross noted, there seemed no such apprehension in Hawaii. He also attended the conferences in London, Quebec, Malta, Yalta and Potsdam. During this period he received the Legion of Merit in 1942 and the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945 as Chief of Transportation on his retirement.
At the conclusion of hostilities, General Gross accepted the civil position of Chairman of the Board of Transportation of New York City and served in this capacity for two years.
In 1948 he offered his services to the Occupation Forces in Europe commanded by General Clay. Both he and Mrs. Gross were able to speak German which proved an asset. In 1949, he became Land Commissioner of Wurtemburg-Baden, Stuttgart. He was again returned to active duty during the Berlin airlift crisis.
Upon his second retirement in 1952, he and Mrs. Gross made their home on the Riviera near Monaco to travel for a year. Developing into a photography enthusiast, making friends, joining the Propeller Club, he lengthened their year to ten.
Returning to the U.S. in 1962, they settled down in Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. It truly seems that West Point was his lodestar and he served it with dedication, pride, a high sense of fairness, integrity, and excellence. He was followed in death by his wife, Ella, in 1978. They are interred together in the USMA cemetery.