A visionary educator and philanthropist who reimagined the global classroom, Courtney Sale Ross died peacefully in her sleep on June 2, 2026, at her home in East Hampton. She was 78 years old and was best known as the founder of the Ross School and the architect of the innovative Spiral Curriculum. She was a visionary titan who saw education as a holistic, global process rather than a set of rote tasks, a mission that defined her transition from art historian to radical educational architect.

Born and raised in Bryan, Texas, she was the daughter of E.B. Chick Sale, a businessman from a family with deep ranching roots. Her early intellectual life was shaped by the study of art history, a subject in which she earned a degree from Skidmore College in 1970. This academic foundation led to a career as a prominent art collector and consultant, where she developed an expertise in rare and valuable pieces. Her marriage to Steven J. Ross in 1980 provided a partnership that would eventually fuel her philanthropic vision, as noted by The East Hampton Star. Before fully committing to educational reform, she explored the creative process through media, producing the critically acclaimed documentary Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones in 1990. This work served as evidence of her lifelong interest in the mechanisms of creativity and human achievement.

The pivotal turning point in her life arrived in 1991 with the founding of the Ross School in East Hampton. What began as a small educational experiment for her daughter, Nicole, and two of her friends soon evolved into a sophisticated blueprint for global learning. Ross and her husband were described by school officials as visionaries and titans who sought to move beyond traditional schooling. The centerpiece of this effort was the Ross Spiral Curriculum, an interdisciplinary educational model that served as an intellectual bridge between her art history background and her daughter's future. This masterwork was designed to provide students with a global perspective, integrating history, science, and the arts into a cohesive narrative of human development.

In 1996, she established the Ross Institute for Advanced Study and Innovation in Education to further refine her pedagogical theories. Her work was guided by the philosophical heartbeat of Know Thyself In Order To Serve, a mantra that emphasized the connection between individual self-awareness and global responsibility. According to Forbes, the Spiral Curriculum became a hallmark of her interdisciplinary approach. She believed that all children learn if invested in, a conviction that led her to establish the Courtney and Steven Ross Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies at Skidmore College. Her impact was recognized on a global scale when she became the inaugural recipient of the Global Citizen Award from UCLA in 2016.

Even as she transitioned to the role of Trustee Emeritus in 2018, her influence remained the cornerstone of the institution she built. The East Hampton Star recorded her pride in the school's first 27 years of accomplishment. The legacy of Courtney Sale Ross is found in the evolving model of the Spiral Curriculum that continues to shape young minds. Her vision of education as a holistic process has created a generation of students who carry her sophisticated perspective into a complex world. These individuals serve as the living embodiment of her work, moving through the world with the intellectual curiosity and global awareness she spent decades architecting. She is survived by her daughter, Nicole Ross.