On April 11, 2019, clinical cardiology and cardiovascular science lost one of its most respected leaders. John Ross Jr was a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Cornell University College of Medicine, from which he received his MD in 1955. His graduate clinical training was unusually broad and deep, including general and cardiac surgery, internal medicine, and cardiology. Interestingly, as his career unfolded, despite his formidable contributions to physiology, pharmacology, and molecular biology, he had no formal training in these fields.