Background
George Russell was born on August 24, 1923, in Wellington, New Zealand to the family of William Patrick Russell and Mary Jessie Grant. He was their third child and the only son.
Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
George Russell worked his way through university at Victoria College, Wellington (now Victoria University) ‘by cutting hay with two horses an old farmer had given him’. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1042 and a Master of Arts in 1943, when he won the University Medal.
1937
Palmerston North High School, Palmerston North, New Zealand
George Russell attended Palmerston North High School.
Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
George Russell worked his way through university at Victoria College, Wellington (now Victoria University) ‘by cutting hay with two horses an old farmer had given him’. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1042 and a Master of Arts in 1943, when he won the University Medal.
Pembroke College, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
In 1946 George Russell was on the third civilian boat to England to take up a doctoral scholarship at Pembroke College Cambridge. He took his Doctor of Philosophy in 1948.
George Russell was born on August 24, 1923, in Wellington, New Zealand to the family of William Patrick Russell and Mary Jessie Grant. He was their third child and the only son.
George Russell attended Palmerston North High School and worked his way through university at Victoria College, Wellington (now Victoria University) ‘by cutting hay with two horses an old farmer had given him’. He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1042 and a Master of Arts in 1943, when he won the University Medal. In 1946 he was on the third civilian boat to England to take up a doctoral scholarship at Pembroke College Cambridge. He took his Doctor of Philosophy in 1948.
After Cambridge, George Russell took a lectureship at Kings College at the University of London for a year, then returned to Wellington for a year before taking an appointment at Sydney University in 1950.
Before turning 30, Russell was a noted scholar in medieval studies and he returned to Sydney as a reader in English. He also held positions at the Australian National University in Canberra and Melbourne University. He was a Fulbright fellow; a visiting fellow at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington; a visiting professor of English at London and Munich universities; and a research fellow at the National Research Foundation, Chapel Hill in North Carolina.
In Australia, Russell was instrumental, with other Australian National University professors, in adding degree status to training at Duntroon Military College, and was a founding fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Ill health prompted a move to Mildura when Russell retired from Melbourne University and for four years he kept up his scholarly research while his wife continued teaching.
In 1984, Russell deemed Mildura city to have become "like Richmond: footpaths, motor cars and motor bikes", and he and together with his wife moved to Cullulleraine, about 60 kilometers west. There he completed his work of editing, with George Kane, the C-version of the 9000-line poem Piers Plowman by William Langland (1330-1387), a contemporary of Chaucer.
For his services to La Trobe University's Mildura campus, Russell was made an adjunct professor but his teaching career (at that stage, a course at the Mildura University of the Third Age) was cut short by illness.
Quotations: "George had a need to help people and gave his support to anyone who asked his advice, even when they chose action of which he disapproved. He was enriched by his work with the St Vincent de Paul Society, and support of Medecins Sans Frontieres in his later years." - Isabel Langford
Everything about George Russell inspired confidence: everyone certainly had confidence in him (even if he seemed ready to distrust himself at times), and in his company, people felt more confident in themselves. Perhaps this explains why he was consistently called upon to repair dysfunctional administrative systems.
Russell gave the same commitment to teaching and all other facets of his life; attention to detail, fairness, generosity and a willingness to serve. His daughter Margaret summed him up in three words: "Faith, intellect, compassion." Russell's significant scholarly achievements were matched by his many qualities, with humility possibly foremost.
Keen on cricket in its pure form, Russell represented his school and university and was a team-mate of the Test great Ray Lindwall at the Randwick Cricket Club in Sydney. Later he was involved in cricket administration in Cullulleraine and represented the Millewa team on the Sunraysia Cricket Board.
In 1951 George Russell married Isabel Langford, a fellow student at Victoria University, and they had two children. John was born in Sydney and Margaret in Brisbane during Russell's tenures at Sydney and Queensland universities.