Obituary
Bill Russell passed peacefully into the next life on Sunday, January 28 at his home in Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida. His loving wife, Sonia was at his side, and nurtured him in his final
years.
He was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1932 to William Russell, Sr, an engineer, and Betty
Davis Russell, a teacher. He spent his early childhood in the deep South, while his father
worked on bridge and road construction. Moving to Hawaii at age 7, he was witness to the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and his father's rescue and recovery role as Public Works officer in the
Navy. In 1942 he and his mother were evacuated with other military families from Hawaii, and
he eventually arrived in Washington, D.C.
He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, in Washington, and attended UNC-Chapel
Hill and Duke University, graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. At Duke, he met Patricia
Holly, whom he married after graduation. They moved to Atlanta, where he worked for
Lockheed, and she completed her Medical Degree. While at Lockheed, he served in the Air
Force Reserve, designing monitoring systems for aircraft and flying as a crew member into
atom bomb testing in the Marshall Islands.
He moved to Washington, D.C. and joined NASA at the time of its formation. His career at
NASA spanned thirty years, and involved many different spacecraft and programs. In addition to
working in sounding rockets and the International Space Station, he became Project Director of
the Delta project, which was the most prolific and successful system for satellite launches in its
time. Hundreds of communications, scientific, and spy satellites were launched by Delta rockets
during his career, and later generations of Delta are still used by private industry for satellite
delivery.
His favorite project while at NASA was his work with the Strategic Defense Initiative
Organization during the Reagan Administration. Using a Delta vehicle, experiments were
conducted from orbit involving detection of ballistic missiles and military aircraft, as well as the
interception and destruction of potential missiles from an orbiting satellite. While the
experiments were successful, the program was not implemented, due to the decline and
collapse of the Soviet system. It was Bill’s belief, however, that the technical superiority of the
United States and its allies forced the Soviets to neglect their domestic affairs in order to
compete militarily, and that his work contributed to this collapse.
After NASA, Bill moved to Orbital Sciences Industries, working on the Pegasus vehicle, which in
1990 was the world’s first privately developed launch vehicle. After several years at OSI, he
retired to South Florida, where he did some private consulting work, and spent the remainder of
his life.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Dr. Pattricia Holly Russell, and his second wife
Beverly Hill Russell. He is survived by his wife Sonia Marlowe-Marais Russell, who has been a
best friend who grew into her role as caretaker in the past few years. Children include Dr. Holly
R. Summers, and her husband Dr. Michael Summers, and their daughter Dr. Samantha
Summers and husband Ryan Smythe. Also son, Dr. William A Russell, III his wife, Barbara
Russell, and their children, Lauren Russell, William Russell IV, and Davis Russell.