Edwin J. Gross (1881-1956) was born in Columbus, Nebraska to Herman and Lucy (Schram) Gross. Edwin Gross was educated in the Milwaukee public schools and the University of Wisconsin Law School from which he graduated in 1901.
Gross was active in Milwaukee political affairs for over forty years. He delivered his first political speech in 1902 in behalf of the Republican Party and continued to take an interest in either Republican or Progressive Party affairs until 1944. Gross was a supporter of Robert M. La Follette Sr. until La Follette's death in 1925. Gross was also a political ally and close personal friend of Irvine L. Lenroot and managed several of Lenroot's campaigns throughout the state, but particularly in Milwaukee County. In 1944 Gross managed Wendell L. Willkie's campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination in Wisconsin.
