EASTHAMPTON — In front of a packed audience at Easthampton Congregational Church, Wright Dickinson shared a story about a weekend getaway to the Carolinas he took years ago with several friends, including Michael Gross.

During the trip, the men took turns talking about their futures and what they wanted out of life. Dickinson still recalls what Gross told them on that trip.

“He said, ‘I don’t need anything else. I’m happy with my life,’” Dickinson said. “It was that simple. And it really hit home for me.”

That was just one of many memories people shared about Gross at his funeral service Tuesday morning. The 60-year-old unexpectedly died April 25 as the result of a brain hemorrhage.

A Florence resident and a longtime firefighter with the Northampton Fire and Rescue Service, Gross had a larger-than-life personality and would do anything for anybody.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t have something nice to say about Mike Gross,” Northampton Fire Chief Jon Davine said. “I don’t think he ever had a bad day. He was always smiling and joking around.”

The entire Fire Department attended the service in official uniform, with fire departments from Amherst and Easthampton filling in for duties so they would be able to attend. The firefighters entered in procession, behind family members carrying an urn containing Gross’ ashes.

Gross is remembered by family and friends as a man with a competitive streak, often talking about his soccer and basketball accomplishments from his high school years and often supporting his children in their own athletic endeavors. He had a variety of nicknames, including “Microphone Mike” due to his talkative personality, and “The Bone,” originating from his sometimes unusual views on the world.

“He had a unique reasoning available, a certain way of looking at the situation as his explanations for the way certain things were,” the Rev. Sherry Tucker told the more than 100 people gathered at the church for his funeral service. “This eventually became known as ‘Boneology,’” she added, to laughs from those gathered.

But he was also a man who was known for helping others, often plowing the area around his Park Hill Road neighborhood in Florence during wintertime, rescuing vehicles that had fallen in ditches and helping neighbors whenever they needed it.

“He would help out anybody,” Kristin Gross, his daughter, said in an interview. “He was a stranger to nobody, and even if he didn’t know somebody he was the first person who was going to start talking to them.”

Gross was the son of Albion and Jeanette Gross, also of Northampton. He graduated from Northampton High School in 1981, where he was an active member of the school’s athletic programs. Following high school, he served in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 1987 as a combat engineer, before beginning a long career as a firefighter. He retired in 2017.

Gross continued to play sports, partaking in bowling, softball, fishing and golf, as well as driving his firetruck to his children’s sports games to help cheer them on. It was also through sports that he met his eventual wife, Sara, when they played volleyball together when he was 22 and she was 19.

“He was all in on everything, 100% each time,” Sara Gross told the Gazette. “His energy was just unmatched.”

Although Gross served as a firefighter for decades, he resisted promotions to higher rank, preferring to spend his time on the ground rather than in the office.

“He didn’t want to do paperwork,” Kristin said. “He wanted to fight fires.”

Kristin Gross currently lives in Goodyear, Arizona, and her father had just visited her the week before he was rushed to the hospital and placed in the intensive care unit. His daughter then flew back home to Northampton, although she wasn’t the only one who came by the hospital to see him.

“We probably had in the ICU, probably about 30 people come to visit him in the hospital that first night,” Kristin said. “And then 60 people the next day stop by.”

Gross’ son, Mikey, told those gathered at the funeral service that he was proud to call Gross his father.

“My dad is a hero who saved many lives and made so many others better,” he said. “He taught me countless lessons and knowledge that I’m so thankful for, and I will use that [knowledge] while I’m here to make the world better.”

The funeral service included several hymns, as well as recitations of “Amazing Grace” and the poem “Tuft of Flowers” by Robert Frost. Military soldiers in attendance concluded the funeral through the ceremonial folding of an American flag, in honor of Gross’ service as a combat engineer in the Army.

Following the funeral, a reception was held at Union Station to continue the commemoration of Gross’ life.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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