Donald Schell Russell

May 15, 1949 – May 6, 2026 #

Don was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Detroit with his parents, Eleanor Schell and Fred Russell, and his sister Cathy. He graduated from Grosse Pointe High School and attended Wayne State University, where his life was disrupted by falling in with bad companions and an ethical compulsion to protest the Vietnam War. He didn’t qualify for the draft, but burned his card anyway. He first wrote professionally for the Detroit News. Then he joined Vista and claimed to have ended poverty in Pittsburgh, but really developed a mean game of ping pong.

Don moved to California with friends in 1970, attending what he called the University of the New Wild West, where he lived off-grid in an old hunter’s cabin in Relief Hill, marked timber, and discovered Mexican food. When a friend invited him to go fishing in Alaska, he went. Then he settled in Blaine, WA, where he wrote for the Seattle Times, and fished Puget Sound and Alaska for the next 15 years, creating life-long friendships on both sides of the US/Canadian border.

Don moved back to California in 1987, sent by the Republican Central Committee to reform Irene Frazier, a suspected socialist. This led him to become the editor of The Mountain Messenger in the 1990’s, where he wrote for the next 30 years, creating a paper that became a cult classic with readers all over the country. They especially loved the way he drew pictures of Downieville crime waves in the police blotter’s barking dogs and wandering cows, and his April 1st edition, which usually hooked a couple of outraged readers. If anyone insisted he shouldn’t editorialize on the front page, he encouraged them to “buy the paper.” He was relentless in his pursuit of truth in county governance, and especially tough on the people he loved and respected the most.

Don read often and widely, everything from historical and political analysis to car repair manuals. If you had a strong opinion about an issue, he could usually tell you why you had your “head up your ass.” He did make people think.

When Don retired in 2020, he could no longer ride with the motorcycle guys, but did begin traveling with Irene in her “rolling outhouse,” camping throughout California, and taking his Farewell Tour of the Pacific Northwest to see old friends. He cruised Alaska and the Panama Canal, and continued to write his Crackpot Editorials in the Messenger. He was proud to serve on the Western Sierra Medical Clinic Board, Sierra County Fire Safe Council, and, more recently, the Sierra County Planning Commission. Most afternoons, he could be found sitting on his back patio watching the golden sunlight disappear up the mountain while nursing a bourbon and a cheap cigar.

After years of deteriorating health from various maladies, Don passed peacefully from a month-long fight with pneumonia caused by cancer in his lung. Don Russell considered himself a lucky man. He lived his life and passed away on his own terms.