Russell Conwell Tuttle was born in Brooklyn in 1915. His parents were Melsom Sabinas Tuttle and Ruth Dietrich Tuttle. He was named for his famous great-grandfather, Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University and an orator renowned for his famous speech “Acres of Diamonds.”
He moved with his parents to Vernon, British Columbia while his father worked with German prisoners of war during World War I. In 1920 they moved to Peking, China (as it was then known) where his father worked in a famine relief program for the YMCA. They remained in Peking for the next four years during which time his sister Carol was born. His father died on the return trip from China and Russ moved with his mother and sister to Brooklyn and then to Windsor, Connecticut. He attended Loomis School and then Wesleyan University, graduating from the latter in 1937.
After graduation, Russ taught at the American University at Cairo, Egypt until 1940 when the expanding war forced him to return hastily to the US. He registered as a Conscientious Objector and served for four and a half years in various Civilian Public Service projects. While still at his last CPS posting, he married Carol Richie Tuttle who joined him in Trenton, North Dakota for a legendarily uncomfortable winter before he began his Masters program at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He subsequently taught at Evansville College in Indiana and at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
Russ’s involvement with Quaker conscientious objectors and his marriage to Carol, a birthright Quaker, led him to join the Religious Society of Friends in the early 1950’s. He served as Director of Overseas Personnel for American Friends Service Committee for 24 years.
Russ maintained a lifelong enthusiasm for tennis and singing. He was a master of harmony and had a wide repertoire. He managed a tuneful stanza of Pistol Packin’ Mama the day before he died.
He and Carol had four children: Lawrence Melsom, 1947, (married to Patricia Martin), Carolyn Louise, 1950, (David Stanley), Stephen Roberts, 1953, (Margy Frysinger), and Richard Dietrich, 1961, (Holly Harper). His sister Carol Tuttle Christian lives in Haslemere, Surrey, England.
Russ died, surrounded by his children, on April 14, 2013, less than three weeks after the death of his beloved wife Carol. A memorial service will be held at Foxdale Village in State College, PA, on April 20th at 2:00 PM Contributions in his memory can be sent to the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102.