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Russ and Lillian live in Orange City, Florida.
I was born August 5, 1923, in Springfield, Massachusetts, attending all my K-12 schooling in that city. I attended the High School of Commerce, majoring in sales and business management, and graduating in December 1941.
I remember the Great Depression, although I was very young. It was fortunate that my dad had a job as a foreman of a machine shop in a large factory and was able to come up with work two days a week. We always had food on the table, but sometimes it was slim. A number of my high-school friends went into the CCC, and I remember WPA projects.
As far back as I can remember, I was always working. As a young child, I sold Larkins Products (household products), selling enough to earn a little wagon. Later I had a newspaper route in the city. While attending high school, I went on a work-study program with the Forbes & Wallace Company, which was a large New England department store with headquarters in Boston.
Working after school hours, I started out on that job as a ready-to-wear service boy, bringing down racks of clothing to different departments from other areas. After that, I worked my way up to elevator operator; then into the job of salesman for men’s wear and sporting goods. From there I went to where the money appeared to be better—helping on the delivery trucks. In the city where I lived, apartment blocks went up to eight floors; and, as luck would have it, most of the people who bought things to be delivered lived on the upper floors. After working on the package delivery truck, I moved up to furniture delivery. I worked at the department store after school until graduation in December, 1941. Then I went to work for Smith & Wesson Revolver Company.
Pearl Harbor was in 1941, and I immediately wanted to join the service in the Navy, but my mother would not sign for me. I was not 18, and I could not join on my own. My mother made the concession that if I would wait and participate in the June graduation ceremony (which was the full class graduation), she would sign for me. I attended the June 17th graduation ceremonies my mother requested, so she would sign the papers for me to join the Coast Guard.
On June l8th, the day after graduation, I was inducted into the United States Coast Guard and went to Manhattan Beach Training Station, New York. After basic training, my first station was Toms River Station in New Jersey, where I was assigned to beach patrol.
I then went on to Headquarters at Washington, D.C., and for eight weeks took fire control training. After my training there, I was sent to CGTS, St. Augustine, Florida, for 12 weeks of gunnery school.
My next station was Captain of the Port, New York City, where I served as turnkey for the brig. After that, I went to Quogue (Long Island) Lifeboat Station, where I was Gunner’s Mate in charge of firearms for the station. I was then sent to the Amphibious Base, Norfolk, for assignment to LST 791, where I remained until returning to the States in 1945. I disembarked the ship in San Francisco, and found my way back to Boston, where I was placed in a receiving station for assignment to Coast Guard Group, Narragansett, Rhode Island, to lighthouse duty. I was not overly thrilled at the prospect of what I thought I was going to have to do in the lighthouse—sit up in the tower and watch the light go round; so I developed a very severe toothache two days later and requested to go to the Brighton Marine Hospital in Boston. After getting out of the hospital, I reported to the Boston Separation Center for discharge. I was honorably discharged in February 1945 after serving three years, seven months, and 24 days active duty in the United States Coast Guard. My rank at discharge was Gunner’s Mate Third Class. I am entitled to wear the American Area Campaign Ribbon; the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon with Bronze Star; the Philippine Liberation Bar with Bronze Star; Victory Ribbon, World War II, and Good Conduct Ribbon.
When I went home, I met a young lady (Lillian) who was a school teacher and librarian at the local high school. Six months later we were married. Using my GI benefits, I was able to obtain money to open a small ice cream parlor and restaurant in Russell, New York. I turned this business over to my father on the day that Lillian and I were married, so I started married life totally unemployed.
I was able to get a job driving a tractor-trailer for Benson Mines in Star Lake, New York. It was a side dump-truck trailer. We had to go down into the pit with mammoth shovels and scrape up the iron ore, put it in the truck, and take the ore to the crusher.
I had always wanted to go to electrical school, and while driving the truck, I had the opportunity—under the GI Bill—to go to State Agricultural and Technical College. I requested the electrical program, but it was full. My next option was heating/plumbing. During the time I was at school, I became involved in Scouting. While putting on a seminary for Scout leaders at the Wannakena Range School, I met two gentlemen from the town of Norwood, New York, who were owners of a plumbing and heating establishment. They told me that if I would come and take over their Scout troop (which was a senior Scout troop—Explorers), they would give me a job. At that time in my young married life, a full-time job looked better to me than one more year in school; so I left school and went to work as a plumbing-heating and metal man. They also hired me under the GI program, where they paid me $25 a week and the Government paid me a certain amount.
I left that company after about two years, when I had the opportunity to take over as Chief Installer for the Holland Furnace Company. Next we went to Hermon, New York where I opened my own business, Hermon Heating and Plumbing. I stayed there until 1952; then moved my business to Massena, New York, where there was a big project—putting in the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Robert Moses Power Dam, and shipping locks. This was a boon for home building, due to the influx of all the people coming there to work. I built the business up to the point where I had five installation crews working. I also opened a side business called Hermon’s Service Center, where we maintained a number of major oil company gas stations. Things were going well until the Seaway work ended and there was a mass exodus of homebuyers.
I ended up closing my business and going into the marine business. I ran a large marina on the St. Lawrence River. After ten years in the marine business, I had the opportunity to teach heating, plumbing, and air conditioning. At that time I decided I needed more education, so I attended State University of New York College at Oswego, New York, where I received a Bachelor of Science Degree, magna cum laude, in the area of vocational technical studies. I went on and was certified by the State of New York to teach plumbing, heating, air conditioning, janitorial, ground maintenance, and building upkeep.
I taught at two schools, the first being Seaway Area Technical School, where I taught plumbing and heating. I then transferred to Northwest Technical School in Ogdensburg, KY, where I taught for ten years. I retired in 1985 from teaching and shortly thereafter moved to Florida.
My personal life has been blessed in many ways. My wife and I have two sons—Ronald, born in 1946, who is Director of Continuing Education with the State University College in Canton, New York; and Dean, born in 1948, who was a manager for UPS in the Transportation Division and is now retired and living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
I gave myself to the Lord after He saved me from a terminal cancer situation. I had my bladder removed in 1982. I should have died within five years after surgery, but it has now been 18 years. I went into the ministry as a local licensed pastor in the United Methodist Church of Stockholm, New York. Right now, my major activity is with my church—the Orange City United Methodist Church—where I have been able to put my varied experience to good use helping others.