San Francisco
County
DONALD
JOSEPH RUSSELL
Donald
Joseph Russell, president of Southern Pacific Company was born January 3, 1900,
in Denver, Colorado; son of Donald McKay and Josephine (Nunan)
Russell.
He received his training as an
engineer at Stanford University, 1917-1920, and began his railroad career in
1920 as timekeeper for a maintenance gang on Southern Pacific’s Sacramento
Division, then as instrumentman and assistant
engineer on that division. During 1921-22 he took positions as assistant
foreman and foreman of track gangs in California and Arizona to gain experience,
returning to assistant engineer in charge of track and terminal improvement
projects in California and Oregon, 1923 to 1927. He became roadmaster
at Oakridge, Oregon in 1927; trainmaster on Portland Division in 1929;
assistant superintendent, same division, 1934; assistant to general manager,
San Francisco, 1937; superintendent of Los Angeles Division, 1939; and
assistant to the president, San Francisco, 1941. That same year he was named
vice president; became a director of Southern Pacific Company in 1943;
executive vice president in 1951; and president on January 1, 1952.
Mr. Russell is also member of
executive committee, Southern Pacific Company; director and president, Texas
and New Orleans Railroad Company; director, member of executive committee, and
chairman of the Board, St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company; director and
chairman of the Board, Pacific Electric Railway Company; director and member of
executive committee, The Northern Pacific Terminal Company of Oregon; director,
Stanford Research Institute; director, Association of American Railroads.
During the First World War Mr.
Russell served with the Royal Air Force, 1918-19.
Member of Sigma
Phi Upsilon, Delta Tau Delta, Newcomen Society.
Republican. Roman Catholic. Member of the following Clubs: Pacific Union, San
Francisco Golf (San Francisco); Burlingame Country Club (Burlingame); Menlo
Country (Redwood City); California (Los Angeles); Links Club (New York); The
Recess (New York).
Mr. Russell married Mary Louise
Herring on February 8, 1921; children: Donna Louise (deceased), Mary Ann (Mrs.
Richard K. Miller). Their home is in San Francisco, California, at 2298 Pacific
Avenue.
Offices: 65 Market Street, San Francisco 5,
California.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Eminent Californians 1953”,
by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Page 313, C. W. Taylor
Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.
San Francisco County Biographies