Ross Meador

In 1974, shortly after graduating from high school in San Diego, Ross went alone to Saigon to open a new office for a child welfare organization called Friends of Children of Viet Nam. His organization grew to become one of the largest child welfare and international adoption agencies in Vietnam and one of the central players in the evacuation of 2,700 children from Vietnam at the end of the war, known as Operation Babylift. His work with orphans in Vietnam and the story of his evacuation from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon on April 30, 1975, have been described in several books including The War Cradle by Shirley Barnes, magazines including People Magazine, television programs including It's a Miracle, movies including Operation Babylift, The Lost Children of Vietnam, and stage productions including Children of the April Rain. He has been featured in exhibits at the Oakland Museum of California, the Presidio Museum in San Francisco, and the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2004 and again in 2005, his organization was nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, most recently by Senator Dianne Feinstein. Ross works as a business lawyer. He graduated from Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley in 1986 and spent most of his career in large firms, most recently as a partner with Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates). He practices business law in Orange County, California.