Carl Ross Wersonick

Carl Ross Wersonick was born in Borger, TX on October 30, 1937, to Robert and Katherine (Wetzel) Wersonick.

At the age of 4, and after the birth of his brother Mike, his family moved to Clovis, NM where he attended first grade.

The day World War II ended his family moved to the North  valley of Albuquerque. A few years later, his sister Bobbie Kay was born.

He attended Albuquerque High School where he was a proud Bulldog lettering in both football and wrestling, graduating in 1955 with honors.

Ross joined the Army in January of 1956 in order to see the world! He served in the Far East Command playing football and baseball for the 8th Army. His secondary job was as a surveyor and MP. He spent 3 long years active and 3 years inactive being honorably discharged in May 1962.

His next step in life was working as a collection agent for a finance company in Santa Fe. He married and moved back to Albuquerque and had two children, a daughter Carla and a son Mark. He worked at Sandia Labs as a commercial photographer and had a studio on the side.

He used his retirement and other savings to go into business for himself, hoping to make his first million in the restaurant trade. Fortunately for his competitors he went broke, but it took him almost four years to do it.

In November of 1974 he met Cleo (DeVaney) Haynes at a singles square dance club and married her three weeks later, the beginning of a 51-year marriage. Soon after the marriage they moved to Blythe, CA where she was a teacher and he worked as a hydrologist for Geological Survey on the Colorado River.

A son, Lance, was born in October 1975 and by then they discovered that the desert offered them a lifestyle of fishing, boating and motorcycle riding that offered them a new chapter in their life. When Mark and Carla moved to Blythe, they enjoyed this lifestyle as well.

It was agreed that he should continue his education, and Palo Verde College started him off. He worked fulltime, used his Datsun as a campus and graduated summa cum laude from Northern Arizona University in three years. The following year he received his masters degree from NAU as well.

After teaching middle school in Blythe, they moved to Kingman, AZ where he taught and coached at Kingman Junior High. The students elected him the most popular teacher all three years that he was there.

In 1986 they moved to Mohave Valley, AZ where he taught social studies, coached football, basketball, softball and wrestling;

sometimes with his administrators but most of the time with his boys.

In addition to being an educator, he was also artistic and started a side business named Southwestern Arts and Crafts. Over the next 20 plus years they did arts and craft shows in Arizona, Nevada, California and New Mexico.

After retirement they moved to Rio Communites, New Mexico to be closer to family and where they lived life to the fullest including golf at Tierra Del Sol, comradery and karaoke at American Legion Post 81, Taco Tuesdays and Friday night karaoke at the Moose Lodge with their Dilly Dilly group.

When asked what he thought was his greatest legacy, it was that as a teacher he made such a positive impact on his students that he cared about so deeply.

Ross' keen sense of timing and his ability to remember every joke he ever heard made him the life of any get-together.

Ross' deep faith carried him through many difficult health issues.

He leaves behind his beloved wife Cleo, his three children Carla, Mark and Lance, his "adopted daughter" Lehny, grandchildren, great grandchildren, siblings, cousins, niece, nephews, church family and close friends.