Motorcyclist killed as car enters path

Piney Point man, 53, worked for public schools

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Thomas Irving Gross Jr., 53, of Piney Point was traveling south on the highway shortly after 6 p.m. that day on a 2004 Harley Davidson Road King, St. Mary’s sheriff’s deputies report, when a northbound 2004 Cadillac DeVille turned left to enter Airport View Drive.

A Maryland State Police helicopter crew flew Gross from the nearby St. Mary’s County Airport to the University of Maryland shock-trauma center in Baltimore, and he died that night.

Gross worked for more than 30 years as a painter for the county’s board of education, a job that took him to schools throughout the county, according to a sister-in-law, Linda Gross. ‘‘He went to every school that there was. Wherever they needed him, he was at,” she said Tuesday. ‘‘He got along with everybody. He did any and everything for anybody.”

Theresa Lawrence said her brother’s family will receive visitors at 10 a.m. today, Wednesday, at St. George Catholic Church in Valley Lee, prior to an 11 a.m. Mass at the church and interment at St. Mark’s UAME Church cemetery in Valley Lee.

The car’s driver, 74-year-old France Felton Jordan of Hollywood, was not injured, sheriff’s deputies report. Passenger Mary Ann Jordan, 59, of Hollywood, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital to be treated for incapacitating injuries. A 14-year-old boy also riding in the car was not injured, sheriff’s deputy Cindy Allen said.

Hollywood fire and rescue volunteers responded to the crash, along with rescue squad members from Lexington Park, Leonardtown, Solomons and 7th District. State highway crews assisted at the scene.