How Late Painter Bob Ross’s Son Is Continuing His Father’s Legacy

Robert Nor­man Ross, known as Bob Ross, was famous for host­ing PBS’ The Joy of Paint­ing, where he would show off his artis­tic skills while teach­ing view­ers to hone theirs. He was on the show for 11 years until 1994, after which he died of Lym­phoma the fol­low­ing year.

Related:

1. The Late John Candy’s Kids Are Grown Up And Con­tin­u­ing His Lega­cy
2. What Hap­pened To Steve Ross, The Son Of Bob Ross?

Meet Bob Ross’s son, Steve, who is continuing his late father’s legacy

Bob had Steve from his mar­riage to Vivian Ridge, who died of can­cer in 1992. Grow­ing up with painters for par­ents, it was only right that Steve knew how to work a paint­brush. Steve recalled falling into depres­sion after los­ing his par­ents, not­ing that his love for art helped him cope.

The 58-year-old toured coun­tries to offer paint­ing work­shops in the ‘80s and ‘90s, after which he took a hia­tus to deal with per­son­al issues. Steve is now back to host­ing these ses­sions along­side a busi­ness part­ner, Dana Jester. His paint­ing style reminds fans of Bob, who believed in learn­ing from “hap­py acci­dents” at work.

BOB ROSS: HAPPY ACCIDENTS, BETRAYAL & GREED, from left: Steve Ross, Bob Ross, Dana Jester/Everett

Steve Ross fought for his father’s legacy

Fol­low­ing Bob’s pass­ing, Steve got into a legal bat­tle with his father’s long­time part­ners, The Kowal­skis, who want­ed all the late artist’s intel­lec­tu­al rights—his name, voice, image, and works. Steve sued the fam­i­ly, not­ing that he owned rights to Bob’s inter­ests and intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty via a trust; how­ev­er, he lost the case.

The doc­u­men­tary Bob Ross: Hap­py Acci­dents, Betray­al & Greed explored the fight for Bob’s lega­cy and called for a boy­cott of his brand­ed prod­ucts as the Kowal­skis prof­it­ed off them. Thanks to his father’s name, Steve makes mon­ey from his work­shop tours, which he returned to in 2021.