Posted on: Saturday, August 4, 2001

Ex-state Sen. J. Ward Russell dead at 84

Advertiser Staff

J. Ward Russell, a former state senator and Hawaiian Telephone Co. executive, died July 24 at his home. He was 84.

Russell, who was born in Hilo, graduated from Punahou School in 1933.

He was active in dozens of community organizations throughout his life and was also active in politics. As a lobbyist, he went to Congress to press the case for Hawai'i statehood. He was the state coordinator for the Richard Nixon presidential campaign in 1962.

Russell was a life member of the Outrigger Canoe Club and was its president from 1960 to 1964. He was on many boards for museums and the arts, in addition to the YMCA, the Girl Scouts, the Mental Health Association and the Rehabilitation Center of Hawai'i.

Survivors include his close friends, Alexis Ausmus and Harold Sexton; hanai sister, Tita Speilman of Waimea on the Big Island; cousins, Stanley Woolaway, Joy Woolaway, Jane Bray, Carroll Smith Coke, Sila Bray and Kihei DeSilva; and special friends, Gen. Buck Schmuck, Marion and Charles Bockus and Bettus.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Punahou Scholarship Fund, 1601 Punahou St., Honolulu, HI 96822, or to the American Heart Association of Hawai'i, 245 N. Kukui St., Suite 204, Honolulu, HI 96817.

A funeral service will begin at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Andrew's Cathedral.

Family and friends may call again Thursday at the Outrigger Canoe Club, where a service will begin at 8:30 a.m. Scattering of the ashes will follow. Arrangements are by Williams Funeral Services.