Thomas E. Ross, Ph.D. b. 1942 is a retired professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke

University of North Carolina at Pembroke

The University of North Carolina at Pembroke , also known as UNC Pembroke, is a public, co-educational, historically American Indian liberal arts university in the town of Pembroke in Robeson County, North Carolina....

. Educated at Marshall University (BA in 1968 and MS in 1969) he gained his Ph.D. from University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1977. He is an internationally recognized authority on Carolina bay

Carolina Bay

Carolina bays are elliptical depressions concentrated along the Atlantic seaboard within coastal Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and northcentral Florida...

s, having written the definitive bibliography of bays (Carolina Bays: An Annotated Bibliography. Carolinas Press. ISBN 1-891026-09-7) In addition to his widely praised research on the bays, Ross has written books on American Indians

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

, including American Indians: A Cultural Geography and American Indians in North Carolina: Geographic Interpretations. He is a native of West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

.