Prodigy Leonard Ross, 39, Found Dead

The body of Leonard M. Ross, 39, a prodigy who won thousands of dollars on TV game shows and a former Carter Administration aide, has been found in a motel swimming pool, and police today called his death a possible suicide.

Police said Ross’ body was found Wednesday at the Capri Motel and an investigation disclosed he had been under psychiatric care.

Ross was not registered at the motel, and police said the gate to the fenced-in pool was padlocked because it had not yet opened for the summer season.

Police said Ross’ eyeglasses and shoes were found alongside the pool. An investigator called the death a “possible suicide.”

At the age of 7 Ross passed a federal examination for a novice ham radio operator’s license. At 11 he won $100,000 on “The Big Surprise” and $64,000 on “The $64,000 Challenge” by answering questions on the stock market.

Ross was graduated from UCLA at 18 and earned a law degree from Yale University. In the early 1970s he was a teaching fellow at Harvard Law School and taught at Columbia Law School.

Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. named him to the state Public Utilities Commission in 1975, but he resigned in 1977 to become a special assistant to Richard Cooper, undersecretary of state for economic affairs in the Carter Administration.

Ross resigned a year ago as a law professor at UC Berkeley.

Jesse Choper, dean of the UC law school, said of Ross: “He was unquestionably a genius--it’s as simple as that.”