I met Russ as a very young geologist early in my career working for Kennecott Exploration out of Reno, and I was immediately impressed. Not only a thorough gentlemen, always pleasant and respectful, but wow what a treasure of experience, from New Zealand to Alaska. It was always a pleasure speaking to him during his visits.
One particular memory, a rather selfish one, of course involved a rock. While drilling a project in California's Mother Lode, one core hole penetrated a quartz vein with a decent bit of visible gold. As the lead to this project I saw that piece of core sitting nicely on my mantle. However, much to my annoyance, my boss Steve gave this to Russ! Well, about six years later, Russ gave me that piece of core as a wedding present. I must have communicated my lust for that vg but don't recall doing so. Selfish, right?! But that rock is still the prominent piece in my small display and is one of the few wedding presents still enjoyed today.
Another time I had dinner with him in Juneau while working a short stint at the Greens Creek mine in 1996. I told him how much I would like to work in Montana on some projects that were going on at that time. When it was clear that I didn't intend doing anything in particular about this, he said "Well, your boss isn't a mind reader!". It was just the thing a Mentor does, and next day, given that changes were underway in Reno, I called the President of KEX, John Main, letting him know of my interest. When done at Greens Creek, I was off to Montana, and my experience there over the next several years put me in position to work at Resolution which was the best move of my career.
I was honored to have Russ visit us in Superior just a few years back. As always, he was the ultimate gentleman and had a number of interesting comments on the geology. I'm quite honored to have known him and used my lessons learned from him many times while working with younger geos and encouraging them to be their best.
Carl Hehnke
