Shirley Gross

Shirley Gross

August 13, 1946 – July 8, 2019

Shirley Jo Gross, 72, passed away July 8, 2019. She was born in the old St. Mary’s hospital to the Edlings, and was raised on the farming land in the Appleton area the family homesteaded generations earlier. She graduated from Fruita High School in 1964. Shortly thereafter, she married David Gross, also from Grand Junction, and the two moved to Glendale, Calif., and started their family, which eventually grew to include two children, Karen and Mike, their spouses and four grandchildren.

For many years the two owned and operated Thermo-Shield Urethane Roofing in Burbank, Calif. While they worked hard at making their business a success, Shirley and her husband made time to enjoy their passion – scuba diving. Their scuba diving adventures took them around the world over the years, and when they returned home, their children would stare open-mouthed at videos of their sweet cake-baking mom swimming beneath hammerhead sharks and petting sting rays – waterlogged and loving every minute of it. Shirley adored cooking, and was constantly experimenting on her family with recipes she saw on the Food Network, sometimes with mixed results, but always served with love and a smile. She appreciated a good practical joke, and was skilled at pulling the occasional prank when her family least expected it.

A decade ago Shirley and Dave returned to the original property that her family homesteaded all those years ago, and it’s in that home that she passed away peacefully surrounded by those she loved. She is survived by her husband Dave, her brother Leon of Kona, Hawaii, her daughter Karen (Michael) Hansen of Ramona, Calif., her son Michael (JJ) Gross of Grand Junction, and four grandchildren, Savannah, Madison, Dane and Odin. She was preceded in death by her parents, Arnold and Barbara Edling. The family is having a private memorial for Shirley. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hilltop Community Resources in Grand Junction, Attn: Keenan Vans. Keenan Vans is a non-profit devoted to providing wheelchair-accessible vans to ALS patients on the Western Slope, and their generosity provided Shirley mobility and happiness in recent months.