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Friends and family are gathering today to remember and celebrate the life of Michael Gross, a 1996 Leonardtown High School graduate who was killed May 30 in a car crash in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Gross would have been 27 on Wednesday.
“Mike did more in his short life than most will do in an entire life,” said long-time friend Randy Brown.
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“He loved to have a good time, but he was smart and witty as anyone … he skipped a grade,” said another good friend, Keith Wachter of South Carolina.
Wachter and Brown sat down with The Bay Net on Monday to remember Mike.
Gross, of California, was killed in a crash at 4 a.m. on Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach, while he was down for Memorial Day weekend visiting Wachter.
Both Wachter and Brown graduated from Leonardtown High School with Gross in 1996.
“He had a lot of charisma, and he knew a lot of people,” Wachter said. “He could talk to anybody, he had no color barriers.”
Gross was originally from Schenectady, NY, and moved to Southern Maryland in 1988. His father Gary Gross, a 27-year U.S. Navy veteran, preceded him in death three years ago.
His mother Monica Gross is receiving friends and family. His sister Susan flew in from Phoenix, Mike’s former girlfriend Ann Marie is here, as well as a half-brother from New York, Wachter said.
“He touched more lives that most,” said Brown. “He was one of the most generous guys we knew.”
Brown said Mike was good at doing whatever he put his mind to, but recently he couldn’t find his niche for a career.
“He recently had a job in sales, and he went right to number one on the team, but I think he got bored with it,” Brown said.
“He even wrote poems, and that’s how he got the girls hooked,” Wachter said. “Heck he even wrote poems for me to give to girls.”
Mike’s ashes will be spread in several places, including where he and Ann Marie met, Breton Bay Beach, where Mike and a lot of friends hung out, and by his father’s grave in Brandywine.
Wachter said there will be a memorial service at 10 a.m. today at Living Word Church in Mechanicsville.