Mr. Ross was well known in club circles, holding membership in the Mount Royal, St. James, Forest and Stream, Canada, Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Racquet and Montreal Curling Clubs of Montreal; Rideau Club of Ottawa; Manitoba Club of Winnipeg; Toronto Royal Canadian Yacht and York Clubs of Toronto; Union Club of St. John, New Brunswick; Halifax Club of Halifax, Nova Scotia; New York Yacht and Manhattan Clubs of New York; Royal C. B. Yacht Club of Sydney, Nova Scotia; and the Constitutional Club of London, England. Following the demise of Mr. Ross the Gazette of September 22, 1913, said editorially: “The history of James Ross is to some extent the history of the financial and creative progress of Canada. He has been associated with many of our greatest enterprises and always in positions of prominence and leadership. In any list of citizens whose financial power must be reckoned with in predicting the course of supreme events in this country, the name of James Ross would have stood near the top. Many of his fellow citizens will think of him, however, as a generous and discriminating collector and exhibitor of art. At a time when Montreal had not many men who both appreciated and possessed the financial ability to purchase splendid specimens of the best art which the old world has produced, James Ross entered that field, and soon made his private collection one of the things of which Montrealers were proud. The public generally have had a chance to admire some of his treasures at Loan Exhibitions; and, in this fashion, the pleasure and benefit of his collection have been widely shared.” Tributes of respect and regard were paid to Mr. Ross by people in every station in life. The high and the low, the rich and the poor did him honor. The following letter was received by his son, Mr. James K. L. Ross: “The engineers on the S. and L. were much surprised and deeply grieved when we heard that your father had passed away. Our deepest sympathy goes out to you in your sad bereavement. We all feel that we have lost a good and true friend. No other man we have worked for gave our men the feeling of security in their position that he did. We always were satisfied that if we did what was right no other influence could hurt us or our families. When some of us were unfortunate enough to err in judgment and our error cost the company quite a lot, in the usual course of railways the officials had nothing to do but severely discipline us. Your father used his own position not to discipline our men but to give them a good man’s advice, which has helped our men and also the company which he then presided over. Acts like these are never forgotten by railway men and there were many sincere expressions of sorrow heard when the news of his death flashed over our road. They have also instructed us to convey to your sorrowing mother our deepest sympathy in her trying hour.