Frank Andrea Russo

Frank Andrea Russo was called home to the Lord on Sunday, December 14, 2025, at the age of 87. He passed away quietly and peacefully while repairing a watch for his beloved wife, Marcia Louise Russo. In other words, he was doing what he best loved to do – repair things.

To tell his story starts with him being the son of Italian immigrants who came through Ellis Island with his sister. His father, Emilio “Emil,” arrived just before the Great Depression 1929 causing him to work for 10 years to make enough money to send for his wife, Carmela and daughter, Raffaela “Lena,” in 1935.

Frank was the first to be born in the USA on May 29, 1938. He was the grandson of the Mayor and town dentist of Guardia Piemontese in Calabria, Italy. He grew up in Detroit, MI where his father held two jobs, a barber by day and Ford Motors assembly line worker by night. His mother was a seamstress. Frank took immense pride with the meaning of being a US citizen to aspire greatness in the land of vast opportunity, thanks to his struggling parents.

After the passing of his father at a young age, Frank went on to financially support his mother while obtaining his undergraduate degree from University of Detroit and his Masters degree at Wayne State University, both in Electrical Engineering. From there, he worked on projects with Bendix Automotive stemming from night vision goggles to barcode technologies, at which time he met the love of his life, Marcia while she held a summer job at his office. He waited for her to complete college to marry. During their year of courtship, Frank introduced Marcia to his passion for jazz, taking her to small Detroit clubs to seek out the best performances. They married on July 11, 1964 and had two children, Kevin Bradley Russo and Nancy Andrea Russo.

His career highlight was with the design of a fuel injection system used in the Renault Alliance, then to be sold to other car companies across the world. This brought Frank and his small family to Williamsburg, VA to become the director of the Bendix Automotive factory which made the fuel injection systems in Newport News, VA. Upon his many work accolades, Frank was granted an honorary knighthood and ambassador by the City of Toulouse, France for his work with the Renault in 1983. By 1987, Frank retired at the early age of 47.

Frank looked forward to spending any and all time with his family, especially the many years of summers, Christmases, and Easters in their condo in Stuart, FL when the kids were young, then eventually visiting many other beaches for family vacations as the kids aged into adulthood. His life changed drastically on May 1st, 2012, when his son, Kevin unexpectedly passed away at the age of 43. Frank, Marcia, and Nancy were lost but supported each other as any tight knit family would do, holding close to their catholic beliefs and trying their best to keep each other happy. In 2022, Nancy married Antonio Roberto Zito, becoming Nancy Russo Zito, and brought the joy of having a son back to Frank and Marcia. Since Nancy’s marriage, the last years of Frank’s life were once again, some of his happiest.