Henry Ross, a Eupora native and a fifth generation Webster Countian, has lived and served in Mississippi most of his 53 years. He is a product of Eupora public schools and received his business and law degrees from the University of Mississippi. His wife, the former Anne Booth of Eupora, also attended Eupora public schools, is an Ole Miss alumnus, and completed her graduate work in accounting at Mississippi State. They have three children: Henry and John, students at Ole Miss, and Catherine, a freshman at Mississippi State.

Henry has long been a practicing lawyer, having been admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1981. However, his real passion is public service. Early in his career, he clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge J. P. Coleman and later entered service in the U.S. Navy as a JAG Corps officer. After completing three and a half years of active duty in 1987, Henry continued his military service in the U.S. Naval Reserve, retiring at the rank of Commander in 2005. In 2001, he was recognized as one of the nation’s top three Naval Reserve senior JAG Corp officers. The JAG Corps unit he had commanded was also recognized that year by the Naval Reserve as runner-up to the nation’s best.

After leaving active duty, Henry worked for nearly four years as the only Assistant District Attorney in Mississippi’s sprawling seven-county 5th Circuit Court District, prosecuting a full range of felony crimes on behalf of the State. In 1993, he was appointed by Governor Kirk Fordice as one of the district’s two Circuit Judges, filling the post vacated by Judge James Sumner. Henry’s reputation was that of a tough but fair judge. Henry was elected the mayor of the City of Eupora in 1997.

During Henry’s tenure as mayor, he changed the long settled paradigm of what a small city could accomplish. Often assisted by private citizens and local industry, many city facilities received renovation. City services and a sizable portion of city infrastructure were improved, and every city department enjoyed tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency through modernization initiatives. Outside revenue in the form of grant funding increased significantly, and additions to the city reserve fund exceeded that of any previous four-year period. All this was accomplished without any increase in city tax rates during the last three years of Henry’s administration and without any curtailment of city services.

His latest opportunity for public service came in 2008, when Henry received a Bush Administration appointment in the United States Department of Justice, serving as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Among his many contributions, he successfully argued on behalf of the United States before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and assisted with the defense of the Navy’s use of sonar in federal court challenges. He served in this capacity through the completion of President Bush’s second term in January 2009.

Henry’s parents are the late Joe and Janice Ross of Eupora. Anne’s parents are Dr. James E. Booth and Mattelyn Booth, also of Eupora. Henry and Anne reside in Eupora with their children in the home his grandparents built nearly 80 years ago. They celebrated their 27th year of marriage in June.