Necrology

James Stuart Russell '40

Jan. 30, 1918-Jul. 18, 2004

James Stuart Russell ’40, who retired as an executive editor after a long career in textbook publishing, was born on January 30, 1918, in New York City. A son of the Rev. Robert M. and Ellen Stuart Russell, “Stu” prepared for college at Mt. Hermon School and Cheshire Academy, and entered Hamilton from Larchmont, NY, in 1936. He became a member of Alpha Delta Phi and participated in fencing and golf. With Richard S. White ’41, he also wrote a play that won the Charlatan Prize Play Competition.

After obtaining his B.S. degree in 1940 (“A kind Providence gave me those four folly-swept years in which to collect my addled adolescent wits.”), Stu Russell headed to New York City and graduate school at Columbia University. He took courses with such master teachers as Mark Van Doren and earned an M.A. in English in 1941. On June 14 of that year, he and Dorothy “Dot” Van Horne, his steady house party date in college, were married in East Orange, NJ. In 1942, following U.S. entry into the Second World War, Stu left the publishing field, where he had barely begun his career, to enter the Navy. Commissioned as an ensign, he served through the end of the war and took part in the Guam campaign in the Pacific theater.

Discharged as a lieutenant in 1946, Stu Russell took up residence in New Jersey and joined the Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. He remained with Crowell-Collier until 1954, when he moved on to Harcourt, Brace & World, also in New York City. Specializing in English textbooks, he became senior editor and head of the English section of Harcourt’s school department. By the 1970s he was associated with Macmillan Publishing Co. as executive editor of its school division. There he had the opportunity to also be on the other side of the editorial desk as senior author of Macmillan’s highly successful elementary language-arts series, Composing Language (1974).

Stu Russell retired from Macmillan in 1984, and he and Dot moved from Summit, NJ, to Aptos, CA, to be near their children and grandchildren. In his new home on the West Coast not far from the Pacific, he enjoyed a 20-year retirement, golfing occasionally, tutoring Spanish-speaking students in English, and delivering “Meals on Wheels.” He also assiduously pursued his favorite vocation, writing. On his Hewlett-Packard computer he typed out mystery novels and plays. His novel, My First Murder, was published in 2000.

J. Stuart Russell died on July 18, 2004, while hospitalized in Santa Cruz, CA, of congestive heart failure. Besides his wife of 63 years, he is survived by a son, J. Stuart Russell, Jr.; a daughter, Susan Russell; and three grandsons.

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