Michael E. Russell

1931 - 2023

News Story
By Mike Sigov
Blade Staff Writer

Michael E. Russell of Maumee, a community volunteer who was a longtime Toledo Edison employee and an Army veteran of the Korean War, died Nov. 7 at the Hospice of Northwest Ohio on Detroit Avenue. He was 92.

He died after a short illness, his son Erik Russell said.

Mr. Russell was "a strong, independent, and very helpful person" with a very strong work ethic, which he passed on to his children, Erik Russell said.

"What he always conveyed to me was, 'Do your best work, because your name is on it,'" the younger Mr. Russell said.

Mr. Russell retired in 1990 as a general supervisor for Toledo Edison, where he worked for at least 35 years and where he started as a journeyman.

"Mike was my supervisor for a long time at the Edison. He was a good guy and treated us well," Tom Smolinski, a friend and former co-worker, wrote in an "in memoriam" published under Mr. Russell's legacy.com website obituary.

In retirement, Mr. Russell volunteered to teach computer skills for several years at Maumee Senior Center, where he also rebuilt computers and then donated them to those in need.

The younger Mr. Russell said his father was also very knowledgeable about the stock market and helped others with advice.

Born March 18, 1931, in Toledo to Genevieve and Michael Russell, he graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1849 and then attended the University of Toledo for a time before being drafted in the Army around the time the Korean war started in 1950.

During the war, Mr. Russell served in communications and as a chaplain's assistant at an Army medical battalion in Korea until honorable discharge around 1953 with the rank of corporal.

"He didn't talk about the war too much, but he would sometimes share the funnier stories when we watched the MASH TV series together," Mr. Russell said, adding that his father's battalion was "a little closer" to the front line than the MASH unit in the show.

After his honorable discharge, Mr. Russell returned to Toledo to work and got a job at Toledo Edison.

In 1956, he married the former Maureen Rigdon. They raised two children together. She died in 2022.

In his free time, Mr. Russell enjoyed operating a HAM radio for many years.

Mr. Russell was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Maumee, where he volunteered in the 1980s - early 1990s, helping organize and run the parish's annual summer festivals.

Along with his wife of 66 years, Maureen Russell, he was preceded in death by his son Phillip Russell, and brother, Paul Russell.

Surviving are his daughter, Jeannette Gordon; son, Erik Russell; brothers, Edward and John Russell, and three grandchildren.

A funeral mass will begin at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the church.

Arrangements are by Maison-Dardenne-Walker Funeral Home, Maumee.

The family suggests tributes to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.