Special Honoree Eric Gross

Eric Gross, known affectionately as the “Voice and Pen of Putnam County,” is celebrating his 60th anniversary this year of reporting the happenings ofthe county he calls home.

Gross began his career in broadcasting in high school when announcing the daily bulletin over the Spring Valley High School public address system.

During his college days, Eric was the first basketball announcer for the LIU Blackbirds at the old Brooklyn Paramount.

Remember the WMCA Good guys….Eric joined Joe O’Brien, Dan Daniels and Scott Muni daily as a traffic reporter covering conditions with a pair of binoculars from his dorm in Brooklyn and when home in Rockland County,

the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Eric always had the love for police and EMS and served as a member of the Rockland Emergency Squad in Spring Valley for many years before he moved to Putnam County in 1965.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Rockland County, his news and features paint a broad brush of timely and fact-based reporting that represents the finest qualities of local and regional journalism.

His by-line is instantly recognizable to readers of the Putnam County Courier and Putnam County News and Recorder.

Eric’s reporting was also broadcast for decades on WHUD, WVIP, WPUT, WCBS and WINS Radio stations. He also served as the Hudson Valley reporter for the Associated Press in addition to Putnam correspondent for MidHudsonNews.

Gross captured first place in the New York Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest for education reporting. In its announcement, NYPA said: “There were so many fantastic entries in this category. The report stood out for maintaining attention to detail while juggling so many stories.”

He had previously been honored in NYPA statewide competition, taking first place in the 2018 and 2021 contests related to sexual harassment at West Point and for a series of articles highlighting volunteerism in the emergency services field.

In 2017, Eric was recognized by the Child Advocacy Center with the First Annual Champion for Children Award. He was also lauded by the New York State FOP as its Journalist of the Year and in 1977, he received the

first Westchester Police Conference Citizenship Award. In his previous life, Eric served as speech therapist in the Carmel School District for 33 years assisting thousands of children with speech and language impediments.

Eric and his wife Norma reside in Carmel and have been blessed with five adult children—Andrew, Kimberly, Paula, Kevin and Kiara along with six grandchildren—Carter, MacKenzie, Alex, Juliette, Jacob and Jade.