Russell Lee Christopher ’46

Russell Lee Christopher ’46 died on November 20, 2004, in San Benito, Texas.

Born on July 25, 1922, in Pawtucket, RI, he prepared for college at East Providence High School, Pawtucket High School, and Thayer Academy in Braintree, MA, and became a member of Chi Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he attended in 1942-43. He left to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II, receiving a Purple Heart and three Bronze Stars. After the war, he returned to Bowdoin in 1946 and was graduated in February of 1947. Following his graduation from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1951, he was an intern at Polyclinic Hospital in Harrisburg, PA, and a resident at Foxboro (MA) State Hospital before going into private practice in Hinsdale, MA, where he was also a school physician. In 1957, he joined the staff of the Austin Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA, and in 1962 he graduated from the Houston State Psychiatric Institute connected with Baylor University Medical School in Texas. After returning to Massachusetts, he had a private practice of adult and child psychiatry in Pittsfield until his retirement in 1987. He was a member of the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council and the North Country Arts Council, as well as the Harlingen Art Forum. Surviving are his wife, Nancy Laderach Christopher; a son, Dr. Russell L. Christopher, Jr. of Palm Springs, CA; two daughters, Nancy Christopher of Amherst, MA, and Wendy Goldfarb of Atkinson, NH; two stepsons, William Pratt of Randolph, VT, and Frederick Jacob of Lebanon Center, NY; two stepdaughters, Toni Griffith of Bethel, VT, and Ruth Van Alstyne of East Schodack., NH; and 12 grandchildren.