By Town Crier Staff Report
Billy Russell, a member of the Rotary Club of Los Altos since its founding in 1950 and a longtime community contributor, will be honored this Sept. 12 by the Rotary Club with “Billy Russell Day.”
Neilson Buchanan, former chief administrator at El Camino Hospital who has known Russell since 1967, put Russell’s impact in perspective.
“The hospital district is representative of something more than the founding of one of the best community hospitals in the U.S. During the 1950s Billy and other community leaders were instrumental in development of important infrastructure - grammar, elementary and high school bonds were being passed left and right.
“Foothill-De Anza was enthusiastically supported. City halls, fire stations, parks - all were financed, appreciated and supported as the orchards were turned into communities.
“And El Camino Hospital District was founded out of several orchards to provide hospital and other health-care services. Billy Russell was one of those pioneers who built infrastructure that we take for granted today. Take a look at the hospital campus with an adjacent school, park, homes, doctor offices, nursing home and YMCA.
“Billy has many attributes that people will be talking about. I would emphasize Billy’s ability to carefully listen, weigh the ‘facts’ and the intangibles and make a decision (and back it up). I watched him provide critically important hospital board leadership and direction on behalf of the community during my 21 years at El Camino.
“Billy always put the community’s interest ahead of everything. Billy was also instrumental in selecting and hiring Ed Hawkins, the first administrator, who provided the fine organizational finesse that sustained El Camino growth during El Camino’s first 25 years.
“I would credit Billy and his fellow board members with such achievements as: 1) fine employees, especially the nursing staff; 2) the first computerized medical information system in the world; 3) an effective organization of volunteers who to this day are incredible in the amount and scope of their volunteer activities; and 4) the medical staff.
“Billy, when he ‘retired,’ I think, had the most years of active service of any hospital trustee in California, and if not, certainly among California’s district hospitals. By active service, I mean nearly 100 percent attendance in monthly board meetings.”
Russell, originally from Iowa, owned a haberdashery business in town. He was on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff as a logistics supply officer during World War II.
Among other volunteer efforts, Russell served with the Los Altos Village Association and the American Legion.
