William Hopson Russell ’51

Bill was born Nov. 5, 1929.

He came to Princeton from East Grand Rapids High School in Michigan, majored in economics, belonged to Dial Lodge, worked on the business board of The Daily Princetonian, and rowed crew. Bill Allen and Ron Cracas were his roommates.

After graduating, he served for three years as a Navy officer. For eight years he was with Citibank in New York, during which time he earned an M.B.A. from NYU. Bill then switched to security analysis, first with Clark, Dodge & Co. and then with Paine Webber in Dallas. In 1971 he bought a small trucking company that he merged with B-Line Delivery in 1973; the business had grown from a strictly local affair to serving the state of Texas by the time he retired in 1997.

Bill said the best thing that ever happened to him was meeting Mary Maxwell. They were married in 1978 and raised two sons who Mary, a teacher, home-schooled in their early years. Bill died Aug. 17, 2009, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by Mary; their sons, Huntley and David; and Bill’s sister, Janet Bacon.