James W. Russell ’48

James Russell, a self-described “kindly country doctor,” died April 21, 2012, at home in Boulder, Colo., of complications of Parkinson’s disease.

A graduate of Choate, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in June 1947. He was a member of Prospect. As an alumnus he served as president of the PAA of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Jim received his medical degree from
the University of Pennsylvania and did his residency in internal medicine at Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, N.H. Jim said his “practice during my 35 years in St. Johnsbury, Vt., was mainly that of a family doctor of the kindly sort, complete with house calls, until I retired in 1992.”

He helped to establish a mental-health clinic, an intensive-care unit, and a drug/alcohol detox and rehab facility at the local hospital. Yankee magazine reported that Jim was the first physician to do a DUI examination on a snowmobiler. He was deeply involved in addiction medicine.

His marriage in 1952 to Jeannette Humm resulted in children Mercy, Martha, Edith, Ames, Mary, and Robert. They divorced in 1984. The same year he married Marilyn Gund, who survives him, as do his six children. To them all, the class offers condolences on the death of a jovial friend.