Revered as a friend by many, universally admired as a priest and administrator, and welcomed wherever he went, Fr. Bill Russell never entirely shook off yearnings for the monastic life, especially the most austere, the Trappists and the Carthusians. He even became a Trappist postulant and novice in 1969-70, only to be told by Abbott Thomas Keating, “You are a Jesuit!” Bill concluded the same, coming away with the mild irony and unruffled calm that marked his Jesuit ministry. Illustrative of both qualities is his memory of his father the day he arrived as a freshman at Holy Cross College: “He was the one who helped me carry my footlocker up four flights of stairs, and who sat on the edge of my bed and told me how proud he was to have his son in college and how he knew that I would work hard at my studies because he would be spending 1/5 of his income on 1/8 of his family, but that I was worth every penny.”
Though Bill always maintained this quiet joy and calm, his ministry in the Jesuits was anything but monastic. He led institutions, providing shrewd and wise counsel to others, with easy and unstrained relationships with those around him, Jesuit or not. Two things stand out in his Jesuit life.
One was his love for France. Bill was assigned, much to his surprise, to the Jesuit school at Vals in the southwest of France. For his theology, he enrolled in the famous Jesuit School of Theology at Lyon (1962-66). Making good use of his mastery of French, he earned an M.A. in Romance Languages at Harvard in 1962. His enrollment a bit later in the Harvard doctoral program in French literature (1967-69) came to an end when the author who was to be the subject of his dissertation was unwilling to cooperate. By now well-known in France for his knowledge of the language, Bill was asked to accompany the great Jesuit theologian, Henri de Lubac, on a tour of North America. The tour was a success, not least because it became a perennial source of anecdotes for Bill.
Another of Bill’s characteristics, far more consequential, was leadership of institutions – Boston College High School (1971-73); the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA (1973-76); Cheverus High School in Portland, MA (1977-80); Loyola House, Boston (1986-88); and Patrick House, Kingston, Jamaica (2001-2007). Alongside these assignments, Bill worked in advancement and admissions. Early on, Bill’s charm and shrewdness enabled him to provide wise counsel to other Jesuit leaders and befriend them in their sometime isolating work.
William Clark Russell was born in Winthrop, MA on June 10 1932, one of six children born to William Clark Russell and Mary Catherine (White) Russell. He was predeceased by his three sisters, Mary Ann Venti, Gretchen Craffey, and Margery Lok, and survived by his brothers Gregory of Westford, MA, and Jude of Kingston, MA. The family moved to Hingham on Boston’s south shore where Bill attended Hingham High School until transferring to Sacred Heart High from which he graduated in 1950. During his freshman year at Holy Cross College, he applied to the Society of Jesus in 1951 and after a year brushing up his Latin and Greek at St. Philip Neri in Haverhill, MA, he spent his novitiate and juniorate years at Shadowbrook, Lenox, MA. A devastating fire at Shadowbrook in March 1956 made it necessary for his class to finish their studies in Wernersville, PA. From then on, Bill did all his theology and philosophy studies in France. He was ordained to the priesthood in Weston by Cardinal Richard Cushing in 1965 and pronounced his final vows at BC High in 1972.
After his six-year leadership in Jamaica (2001-07), Bill’s ministry was chiefly carried out at Boston College, mostly in the Jesuit community (2007-2016). In 2017, congestive heart problems began to slow him down, and he moved to Campion Health Center in Weston, MA. Though the Jesuit catalogs listed him “praying for the Church and the Society [of Jesus”], Bill did much more – welcoming newcomers, brightening everyone’s days, and remaining cordial and unruffled. In his last two weeks, Bill grew weaker and weaker until early in the morning of February 11, 2025, Bill quietly passed away.
