Russell A. Carnito

Russell A. Carnito, 86, of Lisle, IL, left his Earthly pain and passed into Heaven in the beautiful surroundings and wonderful care of Lifeways Inpatient Hospice Center in Joliet, IL, on August 5, 2026.

Russ is survived by his loving wife of 38 years, Sherry (Wolfe); nephews Brett, Russell, and Keith, nieces Bonnie and Danielle; sister-in-law Susan; and many dear cousins with whom Russ spent good times and homemade Ukrainian food. Russ is preceded in death by his parents Rose (Capsay) and Peter Carnito and his siblings Cathy and Larry.

Russ forged through many years of many complex and rare medical problems with Ukrainian resolve and grit. Russ went through numerous spinal surgeries and infection and hand and arm surgeries that left lingering pain and disability. Russ’s need to have open heart surgery in 2013 was found to be due to PARA-thyroid cancer (0.0001% of all cancers, the rarest), for which there is no treatment except surgery. After the final, third surgery in 2022 by specialists in Tampa, FL, Russ was left with a paralyzed left throat, a shimmed vocal cord, a feeding tube, and chronically elevated calcium. But still he persisted. In 2024, Russ got a very rare cancer of the oil glands of the eyelid. Fortunately, he only lost a third of his eyelid and not the entire eye and socket. A year later, in October 2025, his vision decreased in that same eye, but nothing was found. A month later, a bump emerged where the eyelids meet the nose. It was found that Russ had Merkel Cell Carcinoma (yes, the same cancer that killed Jimmy Buffett). It is the rarest, most aggressive, deadliest of all skin cancers, and there couldn’t be a worse place to get it than in the eye socket. Apparently, the tumor started behind the eye, came forward, and then marched along the whole eyelid. It got named “THE BLOB”, after the movie, because of how fast it grew. Russ was sent to Northwestern Ophthalmology and Oncology. After an eyelid surgery, Russ was put on immunotherapy and radiation. THE BLOB responded well to radiation; however, it spread to the lymph nodes and on to the bones and other organs. The immunotherapy drug did not do anything for the Merkel Cell. However, in the end, it triggered Russ’s blood clotting disorder, which turned out to be auto-immune, to the point that Russ was nearly bleeding out. Perhaps this was a blessing, as the bone pain was intense and was spreading all over.

Russ’s last day was spent at a beautiful, quiet, stand-alone inpatient hospice facility with nonprofit Lifeways Hospice in Joliet, IL. All 24 of their lovely, huge suites looked out onto a pond and fountain with gorgeous landscaping. Hospital beds can be brought out onto the suites’ patios. And they allow fishing in their pond. So, all of Russ’s loves were combined for his end: outdoors, gardening, beauty, water, and fishing.

Russ was a graduate of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in Accounting (after a stint in Architecture). He was also a member of the Army Reserve for a number of years.

Being a lover of and home mechanic on cars, Russ spent his career at General Motors. Before there were standard programming languages, GM created its own language and recruited a few employees with aptitude to automate much of its Accounting. Russ wrote the entire payroll system and many other systems that were used in GM’s Fisher Body, Willow Springs, IL, factory until its closure in 1989. Russ was, literally, the last out the door. Russ continued on in GM’s IT for many more years at its Kalamazoo, MI, and Janesville, WI, plants.

One of Russ’s car stories involved the drag racing that they used to do in high school down Western Avenue. One night, the police chased the dragsters. Russ got away. Being a garage mechanic, he and his brother spent the whole night repainting the car to a different color. The next day, Russ ran into the same policeman who did a big double-take on Russ’s car!

Russ loved sports, played baseball in grade school and football in high school. With his Morgan Park High School team, Russ even went on to play in Soldier Field in the Public school league vs Catholic school league annual competition. Russ even tried to become a walk-on with the Fighting Illini. Being only 5’ 6”, he was told to come back when he grew six more inches!

Russ also loved landscaping and gardening. He worked in landscaping all throughout high school, and his mother taught him composting before most people even knew of it. Sherry was so lucky that Russ also loved cooking. He loved everything from making the dirt to growing the plants to chopping the vegetables to doing the cooking. Rarely ever using a recipe, Russ would say, “Enjoy it now because you will never have it the same way again!”

Years ago, when Sherry found one of Russ’s drawings and discovered out that he had been in Architecture. She encouraged him to take up painting again, and he did. So, Sherry is surrounded with many lovely paintings that Russ created. Many framed by his dear cousin and fishing buddy Dennis.

Another thing that Sherry found one year was a stained-glass piece that Russ had made years before. Sherry had heard that the Matecumbe Methodist Church in Islamorada in The Keys, FL, where Russ was a fishing snowbird after forced retirement, had a group that did stained glass, that they had made their own stained-glass windows. So, Russ boldly joined in and was privileged to be a part of making some of the church’s last windows. The church’s “Stained Glass Groupies” adopted Russ. Many dear, lifelong friends and good times were made with this group and the church.

Russ enjoyed traveling and enjoyed trips to national parks; most of our states. Special trips included Wisconsin, Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, California. Overseas adventures include Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and Africa. Many of these trips, of course, involved some fishing, canoeing, kayaking. Blackwater rafting in New Zealand was quite the adventure! Maine became an annual trip of walking the seven-mile beach, kayaking and…eating lobster!

By far, Russ’s favorite activity was fishing. He enjoyed many wonderful days on Honey Lake with his cousin Dennis. Russ and his brother Larry used to go up near Hayward, WI; camp on an island in Nelson Lake; and live off of what they caught. Yes, they got visited by a bear one night. When Russ was a paperboy, plowing his bike thru the snow, he came to hate winter. In the Trib, he used to see an ad for “Chesapeake Resort in Islamorada, FL”. Without even a photo to go on, this became the place that Russ wanted to go. Eventually, through some family trips and through snowbirding in the winters after retirement, Russ made his boyhood dream of being in Islamorada come true. A few years ago, on a trip to Branson, MO, to go see shows, Sherry and Russ stayed on “the quiet side of Branson” at a nice family-owned fishing motel on Lake Taneycomo. They met some men from a fishing club who were there to provide boats, tackle, etc. for a veterans’ fishing tournament run by local group called Warrior Guiding Warriors. When they found out that Russ was a veteran, he was adopted by the group immediately. For the last few years, Russ and his fishing partner, Allen, beat all the other, much younger vets and boats. With most of the trout caught being 1-2 pounds, Russ won largest fish each year (nearly 8 pounds); and the Allen-Russ boat won most poundage of fish even though there were only two of them on their boat. What a blessing these people are. Russ, literally, lived for this trip each year.

As one of Russ’s favorite T-shirts says, “Jesus said nothing about fixing the sink, mowing the lawn, or washing the car. He said, ‘GO FISHING!’ Luke 5:4”!!

At Russ’s request, there will be no special services. In Russ’s memory, donations can be made to Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care (https://lightways.org)