Harold Russell

Reverend Dr. Harold "Tex" Russell went home to be with Jesus on September 5, 2019. He was born in Urbana, Illinois to Harris and Helen Russell on February 13, 1943.

Rev. Dr. Harold Russell married his best friend, Cristabelle (Mosende) Russell on February 23,1990, in Matag-ob, Leyte, Philippines.

Rev. Dr. Harold “Tex” Ford Russell was born in mid-February in 1943.  The week of his birth was an eventful week for his Dad, and some of the things that happened affected his son.  His Dad was declared “4F” or unfit for service, because of various physical limitations and his son was to be a scrawny, thin specimen.  His Dad received a Ph. D at age 35.  The son received his at age 47.  However, Harold inherited his Mother’s character.  Both were introverted, intuitive intensely private people, relating to others through the secondary or feeling-side of their character.

Like many of the baby-boom generation, it took Harold a long time to figure out what he wanted to do in life.  At various points, he dreamed of being a baseball player (too puny), a science fiction writer (he didn’t know anything about science), a teacher, but eventually settled into a preacher.  His father’s side of the family had been Presbyterians for many generations, and, as a sort of inherently conservative person, Harold never gave a thought to being anything else.

Every person leads two lives.  There is a career or public life and a private life.  Harold was never especially effective in the outward or public life, but he was intensely even quite foolishly ambitious in his private dreams.  These aspirations consisted of dedication to the areas of literature and religion.  He was forever jotting down notes, about his reading, and he read about 100 books a year.  The meager result of his endless scribbling was a book, published in 1998, a commentary on the work of a literary critic named Northrop Frye.

In 1990, he married Cristabelle Russell, and in 2001, their son Andrew was born.  Harold was devoted to both. Harold’s favorite saying (it comes from Tolstoy, or rather a character in his War & Peace who is a Christian peasant) was that “all good things are the work of patience and time.”  He conceived his life as something of a long-distance project. He interested himself in the literary and religious traditions, always going backwards in time to try and make sense of the heritage of the Western and Christian tradition.  In graduate school he studied the Victorian period.  In seminary, he began thinking about the Christian past.  Later he became fascinated by the medieval and then the New Testament times.  His ideal was to be someone through whom the Christian tradition spoke.  He believed aboved all else that the primary pattern of all human life involved the Cross and the Resurrection.  His earliest theological belief was that each of us has a destiny, a destination:  that we are moving through this life on our way to life in God.

Rev. Dr. Russell was known as a prolific reader and scholar. Howard was dubbed the "human encyclopedia" by his family. Rev. Dr. "Tex" Russell was a published author and pastor at the Westminster Presbyterian Church. When asked if he would rather be a professor or pastor, he always replied that he was happy God had chosen him to serve God's people, as a minister. Rev. Dr. Harold Russell was an incredible spouse, and proud father. He will be remembered as a man of God.

Preceding him in death are both of his parents, Harris and Helen.

Surviving Rev. Dr. Harold is his lovely wife, Cristabelle, son, Andrew Russell, and sister, Diane Kite of Florida.

A memorial service for Rev. Dr. Harold "Tex" Russell will be held on Saturday, October 5th, at 11:00AM, at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3112 N. Thornton St., in Clovis, NM.

Donations may be made to the Westminster Presbyterian Church.