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Board Member Laurie S. Russell Dies of ALS
With deep sadness, The Robert Packard Center for ALS at Johns Hopkins announces the passing of ALS board member Laurie Smullin Russell. She was 58. A former nurse, Russell was assistant director of development at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and volunteered her skills for numerous civic and cultural organizations. Shortly after being diagnosed with ALS about four years ago, Russell joined the Packard Center board of governors and founded a development committee, which she headed for a year. In a short time, she helped raise more than $5 million to cover 29 grants for Packard Center investigators. Inspired by her fundraising efforts, 11 friends formed “The
Laurettes,” a group organized to support the Center. In June 2001,
they sponsored a dinner dance and silent auction in Russell’s honor
that raised more than $120,000 for the Center. Proceeds were used to purchase
an ultrahigh-technology
confocal microscope, which lifts studies of ALS-damaged tissues to
new levels of clarity, Center researchers say. As Russell’s disease
worsened, the Laurettes organized a rotation of 70 women to bring her
meals, run errands and spend time with her. “She was an amazing person,” said Kathy Davis,
administrative director of the Packard Center. “It’s a very
harsh disease, and she accepted it so gracefully. She really believed
that her work would make a difference.” She married John R. Rockwell in 1970, and the couple moved
to Baltimore in 1982. The marriage ended in divorce in 1990, and she married
business and real estate executive T. Edgie Russell III in 1994. Passionate about music, Russell was president of the Baltimore Opera Guild for three years and served on the Opera Company board for six years, raising thousands of dollars for educational outreach activities. She sang in the Junior League of Baltimore’s Larks women’s singing group. She was an active member of Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and started a prayer group in her home. At her death, she was surrounded by family and close friends. In addition to her husband, she is survived by two sons, Scott Rockwell of Baltimore and Jordan Rockwell of Westwood, Calif.; a stepson, Ted Russell of Baltimore; a stepdaughter, Neal Russell of Boca Raton, Fla.; her mother, Doris E. Smullin of Baltimore, and a sister, Ricky Daly of Breckenridge, Colo. Russell was honored last winter at the Packard Center. Despite being confined to a wheelchair and having difficulty speaking, Russell thanked donors and the Packard Center board for their “dedication, enthusiasm and energy for raising funds to support the research that will one day find a cure for this devastating disease.” She called the researchers “the unsung heroes in these efforts.” |
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