Terry Gross
| Terry Gross | |
|---|---|
Gross at Georgia Tech Ferst Center for the Arts, in Atlanta, November 2006
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| Born |
February 14, 1951 United States |
| Show | Fresh Air |
| Station(s) | WHYY-FM, NPR |
| Country | United States |
| Spouse(s) | Francis Davis (m. 1994) |
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 President Obama Awards the Arts & Humanities Medal, September 22, 2016, 30:51, The White House, segment on Terry Gross begins at 24:10 |
Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by NPR. She has been in this position since 1975 and has conducted thousands of interviews over the 40 years working at the job.
Gross has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet often probing interview style and for the diversity of her guests. She has a reputation for researching her guests' work largely the night before an interview, often asking them unexpected questions about their early careers.
Gross is the second child of Anne and Irving Gross. She grew up in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Her father worked in a family millinery business where he sold fabric to milliners. Her mother was a stenographer. She grew up in a Jewish family. She said that her family lived in an apartment near Senior's Restaurant, a local landmark. When she was young, people would often ask where Gross came from, assuming that her lack of a heavy Brooklyn accent meant she grew up elsewhere. Gross' parents were first generation Americans, with family roots in eastern Europe. She has an older brother, Leon J. Gross, who is five years older, and who works as a psychometric consultant.
In 1968, Gross graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in English and a Master of Education degree in communications from the University at Buffalo. While in college she married her high school boyfriend who attended the same university; they subsequently divorced. She took a year off from school to hitchhike cross country.
In 1972, Gross became a teacher to 8th graders at an inner city public junior high school in Buffalo. She said she was ill equipped for the job, especially establishing discipline, and was fired after only six weeks.
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