Roy Earl Russell
November 22, 1933 – May 14, 2019
Mr. Roy Earl Russell, 85, of Celeste passed away on Tuesday, May 14, 2019. A memorial service will be held at 12:00 pm. Saturday June 1, 2019, at the Coker Mathews Funeral Home Chapel with Dr. Thomas O. Brumett of the First United Methodist Church of McKinney officiating. Visitation will be from 11:00 am until the time of the service.
Mr. Russell was born in Fair Haven, Vermont on November 22, 1933, to Dewey Erwin Russell and Madeline Ellen Langton. He joined the United States Navy on February 26, 1952, after graduating from Whitehall High School in Whitehall, New York. Mr. Russell graduated from the United States Naval Training Center in Bainbridge, Maryland on September 19, 1952. He began active duty and received several promotions while serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Floyds Bay. Mr. Russell served three tours of active duty during the Korean War and returned to Pearl Harbor on February 10, 1954. Mr. Russell was Honorably Discharged from active duty February 25, 1956, at the U.S. Naval Base in San Diego, California. He was a Machinist Mate 3rd Class at the time he was discharged from the U.S. Navy.
Mr. Russell returned to Whitehall, New York and took on several jobs upon his release from active duty including that of a limousine driver where he met the love of his life, Ruth Mary Yurus. They married on May 1st, 1960, and raised three sons together, Jason Roy Russell, Eric John Russell, and Wesley Andrew Russell. He and Ruth would spend 59 years together before going home to be with the Lord.
During their marriage Mr. Russell took several positions as a Tool and Die Maker and later a Mechanical Design Engineer for several businesses. He taught himself trigonometry, calculus, geometry and other necessary skills needed to advance in his career as a mechanical design engineer. He began his employment with Eastman Kodak then moved to the Xerox Corporation in Rochester, New York. Mr. Russell was eventually transferred to the Dallas, Texas branch of the Xerox Corporation in 1973 located in the newly built Mockingbird Towers. Mr. Russell, his wife, and their three sons moved to Lewisville, Texas where he obtained his pilot’s license and began teaching private flight lessons while working for the Xerox Corporation. He purchased two airplanes during that time period, one of which was the experimental “Baby Great Lakes” aircraft. Mr. Russell sold his airplanes and purchased 67 acres of farmland in Lane Texas, a rural community approximately 6 miles west of Celeste in 1974. It was there He and Mrs. Russell raised their three sons, turning an open piece of unimproved land from the cotton era into a productive farm, raising numerous types of livestock, grain, and horses.
Mr. Russell continued to advance in his field of Mechanical Design Engineering and began a career with Bell Helicopter Textron in Hurst, Texas where he completed numerous design tasks for U.S. Department of Defense on aircraft including design work on the V-16 Osprey prototype, V-22 Osprey, and the Bell AH-W1 Super Cobra currently in use by the U.S. DOD.
Mr. Russell retired from Bell Helicopter Textron at age 64. He took on numerous projects ranging from brewing his own beer and wine making to restoring tractors, the antique farm truck and building his own handcrafted wooden sail boat which he respectively named the “Ruth Y”, after his wife who he shared a majority of his life with.
Mr. Russell was preceded in death by his parents Madeline and Dewey, brother Donald, and sister Leona. He is survived by his wife Ruth, sons Jason and wife Yvonne, Eric, Wesley, 11 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren.