Russell of What to Do with the Pups

with their lives. To meet that challenge, At first most trips were north to the Gorman Texas A&M College (as it was then called) Falls area and surrounding counties; soon offered Bill’s father a teaching position in adventurous cavers realized there was great the Geology Department. He accepted the potential in West Texas. Edwards County offer, and the family—father, mother, Bill, with caves like the Devil’s Sinkhole, Dunbar, and newly arrived little brother Philip, moved and Felton became a common objective. [. .] to Bryan, which would be Bill’s home until It was great fun and we were hugely creative he graduated from high school. with our equipment, primitive though it now Home life was tranquil, both emotion- might seem. […] ally and acoustically. The acoustics resulted At the Carlsbad NSS convention in from Bill’s parents not buying a TV until both 1960, Texans discovered SRT [single rope brothers went off to UT. There was, however, technique], and the world changed. A vicious no lack of stimulus since, with no TV, family fight rocked the UT Grotto as the more members could actually read. In between conservative denounced the unsafe new meals, there was a living room lined with methods. But the word was out: a small books, not to mention a set of Compton’s group could push the deepest caves then Encyclopedia. known; elaborate expeditions were no longer Bill’s parents, rather than being heli- necessary. copter parents, were helipad parents, who Then we discovered Mexico. Cars, launched the brothers out the door for parts trucks, third class Mexican busses, and unknown. One time, as the brothers were even trains rolled south with cavers and This photo of Bill by Steven Pumphrey walking along a rural pipeline construction rope and the wonders increased: Palmito, appeared in Third Coast, September 1982, right-of-way, they encountered some work- Huitzmolotitla, Ventana Jabalí, and accompanying an article titled “Thrillseekers” ers who had just bulldozed an armadillo Golondrinas. Texans became world-class by Nick Vanderbilt. nest. Only two armadillo pups had survived. cavers… (pp. 11-12) The brothers resolved the workers’ dilemma What Bill described as an “all-caving all- William Hart Russell of what to do with the pups. They gladly the-time” lifestyle took its toll scholastically. (1937 – 2019) accepted the orphans, which were fostered Bill flunked out of the University of Texas NSS 4357RL – HM-CM-FE on a screened-in porch. [to scholastic probation] and, his educational On 21 March 2019, cavers lost William Perhaps the most notable accomplish- deferment lost, got drafted. Not surprisingly, Hart Russell, a force in caving for 60+ ment of Bill’s high school years was his Bill didn’t let a little thing like the U.S. Army years. He played significant roles in open- becoming a ham radio operator—WN5HRI. interrupt his caving. While stationed at Fort ing up caving in Mexico, in conserving and Aside from amateur radio, Bill’s early years Campbell, Kentucky, he checked out a book documenting caves in Texas and beyond, were mainly time spent until he could make on caving from the base library, contacted and in furthering the cause of caving in all it to the University of Texas-Austin and what all those whose names appeared as having its dimensions: exploration, cave science, really mattered—Caves with a capital C. [At checked out the book, and voilà, an instant conservation, documentation, archiving data, that time, he joined the UT Student Grotto caving group. In addition, he continued work training a next generation, and especially and the NSS, later adding the Balcones on the Texas Cave Index, sending results digging and mapping. Grotto to that list.] back to Austin. This uncommon career is here docu- Bill’s 1955 arrival in Austin saw some Upon returning to Austin after his army mented by several of those best placed to intense years of caving, [often originating enlistment, Bill plunged into a monumental do so, in statements as varied as was his in the “caver ghetto” on Kirkwood Avenue half-century of caving in both Texas and life. This editor’s contributions are in italics in Austin]. The zeitgeist of 1950s caving is Mexico…He was welcomed back into UT, or square brackets. Enjoy, and remember. best described by Bill’s own words from the changed his major to geography (presum- 50th Anniversary issue of the Texas Caver1: ably, a major impinging least on his caving) Katie Arens My formative years as a caver were and graduated in January 1969.2 during the 50s just after the dawn of Texas Philip Russell, William’s brother, caving. The world was not as serious, time starts the story: Gary O’Dell fleshes out the army A caver extraordinaire was born on was not as controlled, and the possibilities episode and how William got back June 30, 1937, the son of petroleum for the future seemed infinite. Work in Austin to Kentucky: geologist William Low Russell and librarian was plentiful, rents were low, and spending About 1958, he was drafted into the Leonore Schuppert Russell. At the time of a year or two exploring Mexico or mapping U.S. Army and was sent to Germany, a rela- the caver’s birth, his father was working for a cave was an exciting option. A group of tively easy posting since this was the period a Houston oil company. talented cavers had assembled around the between the Korean War and Vietnam. Bill Shortly before World War II, the University; they had their own table in the was stationed first at Baden Baden, where he [student union] dining room (Chuckwagon) family—father, mother, and Bill—moved 2 Philip Russell notes that gradu- where they met to plan trips and socialize. to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his father had ation was accomplished with a little accepted a job with Stanolind Oil Company. Caving was new and we experimented help from Philip’s savvy on bureaucratic The war years passed uneventfully, although with everything. Flashlights were too paperwork, and through the grace of the they were punctuated by his father’s absence awkward, Coleman lanterns were large, powers that be in granting a waiver for when he was sent to Great Bear Lake in hot, and delicate, but carbide lights were just the language courses that seemed to be Canada as part of the Manhattan Project. right and could be mounted on a hardhat. an “insurmountable option.” The editor, The year 1946 saw a flood of veterans 1 Vol 51.4, Fourth Quarter, 2005, a teacher of foreign language, notes that swarming into college, anxious to get on published April, 2011; special issue edited William was probably tone deaf . he by Carl Kunath and Jerry Atkinson. could not sing a melody to save his life. 24 NSS NEWS, September 2019 was assigned to the French army, and then renowned authority on the caves and speleol- Mexico. In Helms West Well near El Paso, transferred to Münchweiler, where he ran the ogy of Texas and Mexico, and through his Bill Cuddington illustrated the benefits of post switchboard. While at Baden Baden, writings and instruction, provided a singular SRT to the UTSS cavers in 1960 when he Bill made friends with another serviceman, source of inspiration and energy to Texas and rigged and bottomed the cave (-96m) while Thomas R. Costello, and as their enlistments Mexican caving which served to instruct and William and others were still rigging up their would be over at about the same time, they guide generations of cavers. cable ladders. The fire had been lit, and began to make plans as to what they would In 1955, at the ripe age of 17 years, William and the other UTSS cavers went do when they returned to the states, some- William joined the relatively new University on to become ardent followers of the new thing memorable to celebrate a return to of Texas Speleological Society (UTSS), an technique. William was the first to bottom civilian life. Given his enthusiasm for cave affiliation he was to maintain for the rest of one of Texas’s deepest caves, Plateau Cave exploration, Bill had no trouble convincing his life. In early 1960, William, along with (-104m, Culberson Co.), and he participated Tom that some caving would be just the right James Reddell, Ruben M. “Bud” Frank, in the early exploration and survey of H.T. thing to do. and A. Richard Smith, formed the Texas Miers Cave, Langtry Lead Cave, 400 Foot Those rumors of Rockcastle caves had Speleological Survey (TSS), and he subse- Cave, Emerald Sink, and Langtry Quarry stuck in Bill’s mind, and this became their quently edited or co-edited several TSS Cave— some of the deepest Texas caves destination. In the spring of 1960, during publications. He was a Director of the orga- to this day. their last days in Germany, Bill purchased nization from its inception until his death. For his many contributions to caving, several of the USGS topographic maps for After participating in the first explora- the National Speleological Society has the area to assist in their investigation of the tion of the Tequila, Veracruz area karst of honored William by awarding him the region. Since their expedition would, neces- southern Mexico in late 1962, William, Certificate of Merit and also naming him sarily, be done on the cheap, they boxed up along with T.R. Evans, James Reddell, and a Fellow of the Society in 1968 and made a lot of food into “CARE” packages which Terry Raines, founded the Speleological him an Honorary Member in 1998 [one of they mailed to post offices in the area, “in Survey of Mexico which would later become the two highest awards given by the NSS].

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