Edmund B. Ross, 85, Bred Thoroughbred Horses

Edmund B. Ross, a longtime resident of Basking Ridge, N.J., and Edgartown, died on Jan. 17 at the Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, N.J., after a brief illness. He was 85.

A self-employed gentleman farmer and breeder of thoroughbred horses for more than 50 years, Mr. Ross had been a summer resident of the Vineyard since he was a child.

Born in Madison, N.J., he had lived in Basking Ridge since 1953. He attended the Peck School in Morristown, N.J. and St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. He graduated from Princeton University in 1941, where he was a member of the university's 1941 champion ice hockey team. His love of ice hockey was a theme throughout his life. He and a group of male friends would clear the ice on Silver Lake in New Vernon, N.J., to play pond hockey, and eventually he joined the Essex Hunt Club where there was an outdoor ice rink. He played hockey with all three of his sons, and in later life he played in the senior Olympics in California.

He was a United States Army veteran of World War II. He was married to the late Margaret (Haskell) Ross, who died in 1999. They bought the old Watson house on Davis Lane in Edgartown in 1967.

Ned Ross loved the Vineyard and spent many happy summers on the Island. He raced sailboats, first Rhodes 19s and later Herreshoffs, and enjoyed Sunday picnics at Stonewall Beach with his family.

He was a member of the Somerset Hills Country Club, the Essex Hunt Club, the Morristown Club, the Edgartown Yacht Club, the Edgartown Golf Club and the Edgartown Reading Room.

He is survived by three sons, E. Burke Ross Jr. of Palm Beach, Fla., Amory L. Ross of Basking Ridge and Benson T. Ross of New York city; one daughter, Parthenia R. Kiersted of Edgartown and 11 grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter, Robin Ross, who died in 1989.

A memorial service was held on Jan. 21 at St. John on the Mountain Church. Interment was in the New Westside Cemetery in Edgartown.

Contributions may be made in his memory to the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, P.O. Box 1447, Oak Bluffs, MA. 02557.