Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Rest in Peace, My Friend - "Cousin Russ" Worthington (1943-2022)

 The genealogy community was shocked and saddened on May 11th when the news came on Facebook that our friend and colleague Russ Worthington had passed away, perhaps from a heart attack.  I have known Russ for about 14 years and enjoyed his presence, his wisdom, his thoughtfulness, and his work.  He was a kind, smart and gentle man.  Russ was a Coast Guard and Vietnam veteran, and was very good - and methodical and precise - working with computers, genealogy and software.  According to FamilySearch Family Tree, Russ was my 10th cousin with Bridget (Scudder?) (Verry) Giles (c1600-1680) our common ancestor - truly my cousin, Russ!

I posted this on Facebook on May 11:

"I am so sad to hear of the passing of my dear friend and colleague Russ Worthington today. What a shock. Russ was an excellent, meticulous, knowledgeable and wise genealogist. More importantly, he was a fine friend, and teacher, and Zoom host. We roamed all over downtown Salt Lake City during RootsTech and I always enjoyed his company. Cousin Russ will always be remembered by all who participated in Mondays With Myrt and attended conferences and seminars. Russ was selfless - he was always willing to help someone - he helped me with New Jersey research and cemetery photos and tried mightily to solve my Knapp brick wall. Russ was one of a kind, and I am proud to have know him for over 12 years. The photo below is with Pat Richley-Erickson because it's fitting, and because I'm always taking photos and resisting being in them. Rest in peace, Russ. I send Linda and my condolences and love to Patti Applebey-Worthington and family."

I found that I didn't have many photos of me with Russ, so my Facebook friends helped out: 

(courtesy of Jill Ball)

The RootsTech conference was where we met up for almost every year since 2012 (I missed 2019) and it was the best of times - the Expo Hall, the Keynote talks, the MyHeritage parties, the FamilySearch dinners, the DearMYRTLE after-parties.  Here is a photo of Russ, me, Pat and Gordon Erickson:

(courtesy of J. Paul Hawthorne, 2012)

Russ's Family Tree Maker blog is at  https://ftmuser.blogspot.com/.  There is a wealth of material here - text and how-to videos for users of Family Tree Maker.

Russ's YouTube channel is at  https://www.youtube.com/c/FtmuserBlogspot.  There is a wealth of Family Tree Maker and general genealogy videos on this channel.

Russ was the co-host for Pat Richley-Erickson's webinars, study groups, hangouts and Zoom meetings over the past 12 years.  Pat's YouTube channel has hundreds of videos chronicling their work together - see https://www.youtube.com/c/DearmyrtlePage/videos.

The family wrote an obituary for Henry Russell "Cousin Russ" Worthington III at  https://cochranfuneral.com/obituary/worthington-iii-henry-russell/.

Rest in Peace, my friend.  The Genea-Bloggers and genealogy community will never forget you.

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Copyright (c) 2022, Randall J. Seaver

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2 comments:

Linda Freeto said...

Yes, it was a shock, Randy, to hear about Cousin Russ' passing. He will truly be missed.

Starfire said...

I hadn't heard about Russ's death. I am so sorry. He will be truly missed. Lucy G.