Madeline Dane Ross, journalist and public relations representative, was born January 14, 1902 in Brooklyn, New York. After spending her formative years in Brooklyn and graduating from Cornell University in 1924, Miss Ross attended the New York School of Social Work. With her formal education completed in 1927, she married Claude Markel; they were divorced 11 years later.
Madeline Ross started working in 1928 as a service editor for Delineator Magazine and became managing editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1933. From 1937 to 1944, she was the executive secretary responsible for publicity and fund raising for the Hudson Guild of New York, one of the foremost settlement houses in the United States. During this period, she also worked as financial director for the gubernatorial campaigns of Herbert H. Lehman, taking leaves of absence from the Hudson Guild in both 1936 and 1938.
In 1945, Ross began working with the Jewish Family Welfare Society, but left for Germany during the same year to join the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). While in Germany, she founded and edited Team News, a periodical for UNRRA personnel, and received a citation from the organization for her work. When she returned to the U.S. in 1946, Ross did publicity work for the Guidance Center of the Brooklyn Juvenile Protection Association, and also began freelancing as a journalist.
For many years, Ross was an active member of the Overseas Press Club. She was the executive chairman of the club's Memorial Press Center campaign in 1953, led the club's first membership tour to South America in 1954, continued to coordinate its charter flights for subsequent tours, and served as vice president of the club in 1963. During the 1960s, she also traveled extensively in Europe, where she wrote a variety of freelance travel articles. Madeline Dane Ross died in New York City on April 19, 1972.
