Born on March 15th, 1936 in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY to Esther and Mike Rosenblatt, Elliott graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1954 and served with the U.S. Army in Kirchheimbolanden, Germany (1956-1958) repairing and maintaining Honest John and Pershing missiles. Despite being color-blind, he was tasked with maintaining the thousands of multi-colored wires within the nuclear missiles’ guidance system. He also served at Fort Hamilton and Fort Monmouth (NJ) achieving the rank of PFC (Tech) before receiving an honorable discharge. He returned home to Brooklyn to help his mother care for his ill father. It was at this time that the entire family changed their last name to Ross.

In 1963 his brother Lionel and Lionel’s wife Dorothy introduced Elliott to their next-door neighbor, Arlene Fisher. Arlene married Elliott a few months later on February 16th, 1964. Together they lived in Brooklyn and had two sons (Michael and David) before moving to Allentown, PA in 1968 and then Macungie in 1969. They soon added a third son (Robert) to their family.

While in Macungie, he worked as a travelling salesman selling outerwear, toting his samples all over the mid-Atlantic. And yes, old friends and family still tell stories of “shopping” through his sample racks of last year’s models.

Elliott and Arlene, in 1978, bought the Broad St. Army & Navy Store in Midtown Harrisburg and moved to Lower Paxton Township in 1979. Together with his wife, Elliott maintained their home and continued to own and operate the Army & Navy store until his last day on May 15th, 2020.

Elliott did his own maintenance and construction work on his home, store, and apartment buildings. He taught himself carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and masonry. He was the proverbial jack-of-all trades. He was even a self-taught tailor.

Elliott loved to travel. While in the Army, he took every opportunity to visit Germany, France, England, and Italy. He toured museums, main streets, monuments, and mountains. Later, he fell in love with cruising the Caribbean with his wife, his children, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, and mother-in-law. He loved the planning as much as the travel, spending hours researching each hotel, flight, and car rental. He prided himself on his expertise as a “travel agent” long before there was an Internet. When sitting at home, he longed for the grandeur of the cruise ships’ main dining rooms.

Elliott loved to make people laugh. He didn’t say as much as many. He didn’t have to. His words, always measured, were comprised of dry humor and wry smiles. A little needling here, a little ribbing there, a lot of warm grins everywhere. He made sure that everyone left with a smile.

Elliott built a loving life with Arlene, a relationship that is an example of what a relationship should be. Through 56 years or marriage, two apartments, two businesses, two houses, a dozen cars, a boat (that never floated), three boys, three grandchildren, seven dogs and several cats, Elliott and Arlene overcame adversity and shared joy, raised children and built homes, travelled and enjoyed their life together. And through it all their marriage grew stronger every day.

Elliott died at 84 years of age of complications from cancer and heart disease at Hershey Medical Center on Friday, May 15, 2020. A private grave-side service was held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2020, in Beth El Temple Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Vietnam Veterans of America - VVA Chapter# 542, 8000 Derry St, Harrisburg PA 17111or at www.vva542.org.

Elliott is survived by his wife Arlene, sons Michael (Jennifer), David, and Robert (Pamela), and grandchildren; Ned, Machai, and Hadley, all living in Harrisburg, all living just down the road from the home Elliott shared with Arlene for over 40 years.