Deceased January 25, 2022
View alumni profile (log in required)
In Memory
Reuben Clay ’60 wrote, “I knew Russell from September 1956, when we were Amherst freshmen living on the second floor of Morrow. When my steamer trunk arrived, I looked for someone to help; Russell put it on his back and carried it up by himself! In my sophomore year, Russ, Peter Gilbert ’60, Jay Barnett ’60, John Slocumb ’60 and I were roommates in South. Junior year, we went to our different fraternities, with Russell living in DU. He was always close to me, driving me to pick up my date to go to Williams and to Tufts with his girlfriend (later, first wife) for another date. After we graduated, Russell went to business school at Harvard. In 1964–65, when I interned at San Francisco General, Russ was in the East Bay and took me to lunch. Back in San Francisco as a resident at UCSF in 1968, I went to his son’s bar mitzvah. Our interactions were interrupted until Peter Gilbert ’60 visited, and we all had dinner together. Thereafter we exchanged more frequent visits with Russell and Debra, the last occurring in 2021.”
In our 25th reunion book, Russ described establishing branches of his family’s moving and storage business in the Oakland area. He switched to commercial real estate until dropping out of corporate life “to play for a few years.” For our 50th, he reported marrying his second wife, Debra, in 1981, and their seeing the world in 30 countries on six continents. They resumed real estate projects and diversified into commercial rental investments. “Always trying new things and helping people,” as his son described him, Russ learned to ski, took up fly-fishing after 60 and returned to playing bridge in his 70s, while also making his four grandchildren part of his “new passions.”
Reuben Clay ’60 and Dick Weisfelder ’60