Jane was born December 17, 1928, in Teaneck, New Jersey. She was the only child of the late William Henry and Jane Dexter Gerolstein. She is survived by her beloved husband, Tom, her two sons, William Albert (Terry) Braun and Richard Alan (Judy) Braun, and Bill’s children, James and Lindsey. She is also survived by Tom’s daughters, Donna (James) Colman and Lori (Trent) Rentsch as well as grandchildren Brittany (Shawn) Skillman, Leah Colman, Ryan (Ryan (Danielle) McTighe, Travis (Brittany) Mctighe, and great-grandchildren Tatum and Penn Skillman, and Sloan McTighe. Tom’s brothers, James (Carolyn), Patrick (Tee), and Dennis also survive.
Jane lived a few years in New Jersey and New Hampshire and then moved to Daytona Beach where she graduated from high school. As a 37-year-old divorced mother of two, Jane began her higher education in 1966 at Daytona Beach Junior College. Within 18 months she earned an A.A. degree with high honors and a scholarship to The University of Florida in Gainesville. By 1970 she had both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education with highest honors and was living in Gainesville.
After two years as Associate Director of the Learning Resources Center at Lake City Community College, Jane moved back to Gainesville, taught briefly at UF, and commuted to Tallahassee where she earned an Advanced Master’s in Library Science at Florida State University. In 1974 she was appointed reference librarian at the law library at UF. Jane became a member of Mensa and was listed in “Who’s Who in America” and “Who’s Who of American Women.” After four years at UF, she accepted a better position as a law librarian at The University of Missouri in Kansas City. In 1980 she advanced again to become a law librarian at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
In 1980 Thomas L. Russell and she were married and built a house in Raleigh where he was an administrator at North Carolina State University. Thereafter they began major professional and personal travels to 89 countries and to all seven continents; she shared many of his professional responsibilities and, at times, lectured on his behalf. They lived in Japan during the fall of 1982 which led to her becoming assistant to the director of The North Carolina Japan Center at North Carolina State University. She and Tom published articles such as “An Experiment in Language (Japanese) Teaching by Television.” They also lived in India where Tom was a Fulbright scholar. In 1986 on one of their trips to India they visited Gerolstein, Germany where Jane’s paternal grandfather was born. In 2009 she was appointed an honorary alumna of the State University of New York in Potsdam from which Tom graduated.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Potsdam College Foundation for the Thomas L. and Jane D. Russell Distance Education Scholarship, or the Thomas L. and Jane D. Russell Distance Education Faculty Excellence Award, c/o Potsdam College Foundation, SUNY Potsdam, 44 Pierrepont Avenue, Potsdam, NY 13676.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18