During his scientific career, spanning the time from the early 1930's to the present date, Bernhard Gross has contributed to many disciplines of physics and engineering. Some of these fields, such as radiation effects in solids and charge storage and transport in dielectrics, are integral parts of electret research, an area which Gross has promoted, and whose development he has guided, over the past six decades. The present article focusses on the outstanding contributions of Bernhard Gross to electret research and discusses the impact of his work on the evolution of this field.