Loris S. Russell *30

Mayflower descendant Loris Shano Russell, distinguished geologist, paleobiologist, museum curator, and scientific author died July 6, 1998. He was 95. He was residing in the Sunnybrook Veterans' Hospital in Toronto. Born in Brooklyn to an American father and a Canadian mother, he was raised in Alberta, Canada and resided primarily in Canada during all of his life. He earned an MA in 1929 and PhD in 1930, in geology, from Princeton.

A leader in research and institutional administration in Canada, Loris was director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Paleontology from 1946-50. In 1950 he joined the Natl. Museum of Canada, where he was chief of the zoology section (1950-56), director of natural history (1956-63), and acting director of human history (1958-63). He was next appointed as chief biologist at the Royal Ontario Museum and simultaneously as professor of geology at the U. of Toronto.

He published extensively in the fields of paleobiology and the antiquities of early America. Retirement in 1971 did not end his fieldwork in western Canada which he continued with his wife until late 1992. Mrs. Russell predeceased Loris. They left no children but a host of devoted nieces, nephews, and scientific colleagues. His researches and interests were exceedingly extensive in scope.

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