Philip Courtenay Russell's Obituary
Phil Russell, 93, was born in Monroe, Maine to Emmet and Amy Dyer Russell, both ordained ministers. Like Safeway managers ministers move from church to church. So he attended many elementary schools.
His last one was Wheaton Academy in Wheaton, Illinois prior to joining the Navy in 1942. He began as a Naval Gunner and was teaching photo journalism in Great Lakes when he was selected to do Public Relations. That led to doing such things as witnessing early atom bomb testing in the Pacific and covering a reward cruise to Italy and France. He did the PR for Fleet week in San Francisco and the Navy Ships in Portland’s Rose Festival.
After retirement from the Navy he continued in civil service, Naval engineering lab at Port Hueneme, California where he was active in the equal opportunity program and also actively work toward the passage of ERA.
During retirement, after being impressed by MacIntosh/Apple computers he was a founding member of two computer clubs, one in California and later in Corvallis, Oregon, where he produced and edited a monthly newsletter, “Mouse Droppings” whose name some folks questioned but he prevailed.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his first wife Betty Russell and a son Ted. He is survived by his daughter Jane Douglas of Camarillo, California, his sister Eunice Schatz of Boston, Mass. And his present wife Leigh Hamilton Russell.
We are grateful for his medical care by Dr. Emma Brooks and Associates and his final days at Hopewell House, a Legacy Hospice House in the West Hills.
At his request there will be no funeral, in memory of Phil a donation to Hospice or a Cancer Society would be appropriate.
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