Eric L. Russell
December 15, 1946 ~ December 24, 2024
Dr. Eric L. Russell, born December 15, 1946 in Cheyenne, WY was sent to his eternal home on December 24, 2024 in Wichita, KS.
Though born in Cheyenne, Eric grew up in Wichita. It’s where he earned his Eagle Scout Award in 1961, Troop 509. After graduating from Southeast High School in 1964, Eric received his BS and MS from Wichita State University and his PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1975, where he met his wife of nearly 50 years. While at UCSC Eric played for the university’s Rugby team, the Fighting Banana Slugs. Eric and Darryl moved to Dallas, TX where Eric did his post-doctoral work at UT Dallas and played with the Dallas Rugby team. Eric was offered a position with Boeing Computer Services in Wichita, KS. While still in Wichita, Eric and Darryl started a family and Eric taught computer science courses at Wichita State part-time. After leaving BCS he was offered a Senior Scientist position with Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago. Eric and family moved to Gurnee, IL until his retirement. The family then moved back to Wichita where he and his wife established Wichita Pug Rescue, a 501c3 non-profit organization.
Preceded in death by his parents, Philip and Marian Russell. Survived by his wife, Darryl Russell of Benton; daughters, Erica Russell, Jocelyn (James) Pafume; grandchild, Brennan Pafume, all of Wichita; sisters, Elin (Bill) Bloedel of Winfield, Evon Russell of Wichita; and many nieces and nephews.
Memorial Service will be at 1:00 pm, Saturday, January 4, 2025, at Grace Presbyterian Church.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established with Wichita Pug Rescue, 1252 NW Liberty Ln., Benton, KS 67017.
Services in care of Downing & Lahey Mortuary - East Chapel.
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A good brother (in-law) taken way to soon.
I met Eric while working at Abbott. We were working on the same big project but from different departments. In my department was a John Russell, who was also from Kansas. They didn’t look similar in stature but they called themselves the Russell brothers. Where I’m from, if your last name is Colpitts, you’re related. And so I assumed that Eric and John were related. It was the way they talked about chiggers and reminisced about Kansas. Eric would talk about the family farm, his dad, and the desire to return to Kansas again. It turned out that Eric and John are not related but the running joke took me a while to figure out.
Eric left Abbott and returned to work with us again developing software. We needed someone to help us deal with mass spectrometry data and he was just the guy. This time I worked with him directly and got to know his mind. It’s fair to say that we liked the way each others’ mind worked. It was a fun five years.
And during this time, I had the pleasure of meeting Darryl and the pugs, attending his 60th birthday party, seeing what a DIY guy he was at home, and admiring all of the looms they had around the house. Eric’s dream of moving back to Kansas came true. And I got on the mailing list of the Russell-family Christmas newsletter. How I looked forward to that Christmas greeting and family update. I couldn’t wait to tell him that my two daughters had become scientists and my oldest was in graduate school pursuing bioinformatics. I knew that would warm his heart.
From the first time he stopped by my desk to chat, I felt like I was talking to family. He was all about family, talking about Darryl and his kids, the family farm and siblings, his dad and how much he admired him. He made me feel at home with him.
In our last correspondence, he let me know that he had been in an accident with an 8ft 2×6 in his most recent DIY project. I’m so grateful that he wrote. It sounded as grave as it was. This outreach inspired me and I hope to do likewise.
Eric was a friend who treated me like family. I know I’ll see Eric again and I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be an honor.