Family, Friends Mourn Untimely Passing of Petaluma Native

Family and friends of Petaluma High School graduate Julia Ross are mourning her untimely death.

The 29-year-old Ross, the daughter of Joseph and Dru West, died March 15 in Newport Beach from septic shock.

"She had been working really hard to get moved, get married, she was starting a new job (assignment)," said her father, Joe West.

Julia Ross had just gotten married a month earlier and was getting ready to go on a honeymoon cruise with her husband, Eric. But she started experiencing cold-like symptoms and by the time she walked into the emergency room, her kidneys were shutting down, West said. 

"We don’t know exactly what happened. People can get a low-grade illness and they compensate for it until it overpowers their body and they just fall off a cliff. Maybe if she would have gone in 12 hours sooner, we could have saved her."

Ross graduated from Petaluma High School in 2001 and later from Humbolt State University with a degree in economics and a minor in applied mathematics.

A self-described former punk rocker who once spent a year walking around with bright green hair, Ross loved reading, animals and spending time with family and friends. She received a full tuition scholarship to attend a PhD program in economics at U.C. Irvine, but took a leave of absence after completing her master's in favor of getting more real-life experience.

At the time of her death, Ross was working as a senior consultant at Urban Sciences in Long Beach.

"She was very smart, she had gone off in advanced statistical analysis and was just in a different galaxy from me, and I live and breathe math," said her father.

"Julia had worked as a tutor for economics classes and had a way of explaining things to students...People have told us over and over that Julia changed their lives. She had friendships all across the continent and up and down the planet...She was continuing to grow in many different ways."

Ross is survived by husband Eric Ross, Marc Fish of Inverness and her sisters Nancy Martin and Laura West of Petaluma.

Memorial services will take place in Southern California on April 13 and a second one in Petaluma on April 27, the day Ross would have turned 30.