The Peppermint Patty Calypso Ska Reggae Band Is Back!

Another hero passes this way no more.  Nick Russin, one of the leaders and members of my hometown church choir, gone to the great Harmonious Sky:

Dr. Nicholas (Nick) Charles Russin, 88, of Kingsport, passed away Wednesday, April the 14th, at his home with his family.

Nick was born on February 6, 1922, in Butler, PA, and has been a resident of Kingsport since accepting a job as research chemist with Tennessee Eastman Company in 1950 where he worked until retiring in 1985. He began violin lessons at the age of five and made his violin debut in Pittsburg's Carnegie Hall at the age of seven. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson with Phi Beta Kappa honors and earned his master and doctor of science degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He also attended UCLA during the beginning of WWII to learn to determine the weather on Naval ships in the south Pacific, serving on the USS Midway.

Nick was a talented athlete, and played baseball at UCLA where he struck out twenty batters in one game as a pitcher. He was offered a minor league contract with the Cincinnati Reds, but joined the Navy instead and was in the south Pacific the latter part of World War II.

He was a longtime member of Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church and was a deacon, elder, choir member and/or director for over forty four years, and a Johnson Memorial Sunday School teacher for many years. Other memberships he enjoyed were the VFW, the Lions, the American Legion, and the Elks. Nick was past Worshipful Master of the Kingsport Masonic Lodge and was a member for over fifty years. Nick was a Sullivan County Commissioner. He was also a violinist for over thirty years in the Kingsport Symphony Orchestra as well as past president and board member.

 Men and women like Nick demonstrated to me that dedication to a better life only the experience of a true, loving family can give you.

Thanks for sharing your life with us, Nick!  You're gonna be missed.  You and others like you who made Kingsport and Oak Ridge special places to live make me glad I live in Huntsville where great minds think alike - your greatness and pursuit of perfection rub off on the rest of us mere mortals.