Molly W. Gross, age 95 of Pullman, WA, passed away March 13, 2019.
Molly Wilma Chamberlin was born March 30, 1923 to Tom and Hazel Chamberlin on a farm her grandfather homesteaded in 1877 near Flandreau. She felt, even at the time, that she had an ideal childhood roaming the outdoors, tending to and playing with the animals as well as brothers, sisters and neighborhood children. She attended the country school through eighth grade, after which she took the bus to Egan for high school. In the fall of 1941, she entered South Dakota State College in Brookings. At the time, tragedy struck with the death of her father and uncle in a car accident, followed shortly by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. That same semester at college she met Ken Gross of Madison, S.D. They were married on December 22, 1944 and after both graduating from South Dakota State, they eventually settled in Pullman, where Ken joined the agricultural extension service at Washington State University. From 1962-67, they lived in Lyallpur, Pakistan, on a WSU project. They returned to Washington and lived in the Spokane Valley. Molly taught at New Hope Training Center as well as engaging in her lifelong passion for gardening - both vegetables and flowers. In 1982, they returned to Pakistan and lived in Peshawar from 1982-84, following which they moved to a farm near Valleyford, WA. She returned to Pullman in 2011. She was an active member of either the Trinity Lutheran Church in Pullman or Advent Lutheran in the Spokane Valley for more than 60 years.
Survivors include two sons: Randy (Susan) of Elkton and Phil (Vickie) of Pullman; one daughter: Mary (Doug) Lopes, of Pullman; her sister: Fern Martinson of Seattle, WA; eight grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.
A family gathering at the Pullman Cemetery will be held at a later date where Molly and Ken’s ashes will be interred together.