Growing up, Stephen Gross’ grandparents had a Saturday night tradition that Gross enjoyed whenever he visited them in Athens.

“They loved to watch rasslin’,” Gross said. “That’s rasslin’ with an R, not a W. And the one they loved to hate was Tojo Yamamoto.”

Yamamoto was a Hawaiian named Harold Watanabe who portrayed a Japanese wrestler for many years on the wrestling circuit. Yamamoto played the “heel,” or the bad guy, for many years during his wrestling career.

“My grandparents would yell and scream and throw stuff at the television when Tojo was wrestling,” Gross said with a laugh. “They hated him with a passion.”

When Gross asked them why they despised Yamamoto, they told him it was because Yamamoto and his people had killed Gross’ great-uncle, Edgar David Gross, on Dec. 7, 1941. Edgar Gross died in the Pearl Harbor attack, and he had attained a legendary status among the family.

“He was a hero to my family,” Gross said. “He was larger than life. I never knew Edgar. He died way before I was born, but he is huge part of my family’s history.”

Edgar Gross had been aboard the USS Oklahoma, which capsized in the attack. With 429 men dead, it was the ship with the second-most loss of life after the USS Arizona, which had 1,177 dead.

Like many of the people killed in the attack, Edgar Gross’ remains were not identified, and he was buried in graves near the attack site with hundreds of others.

But now, thanks to DNA technology, his remains will be brought home to Athens and buried with the rest of his family in Evans Cemetery, 78 years after he was killed.

“This is the final chapter in Edgar’s life, death and homecoming I never thought I’d get to see written,” Stephen Gross said. “I still get chills up and down my body when I talk about it.”

The beginning of that journey was in early November 2011, when Stephen Gross received a phone call in Anniston from a woman named DeeDee King of the POW MIA accounting division. The division is tasked with trying to identify remains of those killed in military combat.

When it comes to Pearl Harbor, that task can be a difficult one, as skeletal remains from hundreds of individuals are all buried together.

King asked Stephen Gross if he recognized the name Edgar David Gross. When he told her Edgar Gross was his great-uncle who was killed aboard the USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor, she shouted, “I found you!”

Stephen Gross said King told him they needed DNA from his great-uncle’s nieces in order to match the remains due to female DNA being stronger than male DNA.

“I didn’t know anybody on that side of the family, but fortunately, my mother was still alive, and she was up on all this stuff,” Stephen Gross said. “She gave me the name Carolyn Warren in Illinois, so I called her, and she knew exactly who I was. She volunteered to give DNA and introduced me to her sister Emily, who lives in Florence, (Alabama,) and she gave DNA as well. We thought the process would only take a few months.”

It took quite a bit longer than that. Months turned into years, and the trail looked as if it had turned cold. But on Sept. 7, 2018, Gross received a phone call from a familiar voice he had been waiting on for seven years.

“It was DeeDee King, and she told me she had some good news,” Stephen Gross said. “She said, ‘We have identified your Uncle Edgar.’ Oh my God, that was one of the greatest days of my life. It almost brought me to tears, because I never thought I’d see the day.”

Stephen Gross said he was hoping to have Edgar Gross’ remains shipped back to Athens and buried Dec. 7, but the remains were not ready by that date. Instead, Edgar will be buried Memorial Day 2019.

Not all who assisted in the identification of Edgar Gross’ remains will be there to see the burial. Stephen Gross’ mother died in 2017, and Carolyn Warren died in 2015. Emily Warren is still alive, though, and plans to see Edgar return to his home to be buried.

“My mother was real, real persistent during the process,” Stephen Gross said. “She would always ask, ‘Have you heard anything about Uncle Ed?’ She was so hoping we would find his remains, and she would see him buried before she passed away. But I know she’ll be looking on in spirit.”

So the long journey from Pearl Harbor to Athens is nearly complete, and Edgar David Gross will at long last be able to reside in peace with the rest of his family.

“Edgar was a mythical figure in my family’s history,” Stephen Gross said. “He was larger than life, but he was just a name. Did he really exist? Yes, he really does exist, and he will be coming home.”