Galen Douglas Trussell

Born in Baltimore, MD in 1929, he moved to the Washington DC area as a child. He graduated in American Studies at George Washington University in 1950. From 1951-53 he served in the US Army and received training in psychological warfare.

The brother, son, and grandson of newsmen, Trussell began a career in journalism in 1950 with the Griffin News Bureau, covering Congress and the federal agencies for a dozen New England newspapers. In 1959 he went to Havana to report on Fidel Castro's first days of power, and in 1960 he joined Richard Nixon's first presidential campaign headquarters as a writer.

In 1961 Trussell moved to Florida to join the staff of the old St. Petersburg Times where his assignments included the police beat, the copy desk, and occasional features, such as astronaut John Glenn's return to Cape Canaveral from his manned space flight.

In 1962, Trussell returned to Washington to join the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), first in government relations, ultimately as a vice president, and later in public affairs as an editor, media contact, and writer. In the interim he had left NAM to join the staff of the Secretary of Treasury, Trussell and his family lived in Castelldefels, Spain, 1973-74.

In 1981, he left NAM to join the U.S> Agency for International Development (AID), as a special assistant in the Private Enterprise Bureau.

Trussell retired in 1989. He and his wife of 62 years, Edwina Ewin Trussell, left Washington for Landaff, NH, and later, the San Francisco area, and El Paso. He is survived by Edwina; their children, David Douglas Trussell of Fremont, CA; Robert Prescott Trussell, of El Paso, TX; Laura Trussell Merchlinsky, of Baltimore, MD; and six grandchildren.