Bill Russell

On Sunday, 14th June, 2015, Bill Russell was presented with a certificate to mark over 40 years service as our Church Organist at Mure Memorial. His many years of faithful service to Mure Memorial has been greatly appreciated over the years. 

It was with great sadness that Bill passed away on the 27th April, 2016. Below is Bill’s Obituary as appeared in the Link, written by Janet Park:

 

It was with great sadness that we learned of the very sudden passing of our organist, Bill Russell on Wednesday 27th April 2016

It was in late 1973 that we were looking for a new organist and Bill, in typical Bill fashion, offered to help until we found someone on a permanent basis. That someone turned out to be Bill and he was officially appointed to the post on 14th February 1974, St Valentine’s Day, which seems quite a significant date, because the relationship which started on that day was indeed just like a love affair that lasted for just over 42 years, because Bill was dearly loved by our church family at Mure Memorial.

There can be no doubt, as we look back, that he helped raise the importance of music within our congregation, whether he was playing for a sponsored Sunday School sing along of choruses or leading the choir in the various Oratorios and Cantatas that they performed during Holy Week. He encouraged our young people to put on performances of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, twice. He encouraged and cajoled all ages to rise to the challenge of putting on a performance of the musical Viva Mexico and we even put on the pantomime, Cinderella, and there was always our ever popular Carol Party which Bill introduced many years ago.

In 1992 we shared in the amazing experience of joining Rick Wakeman in a performance of “The Gospels” a musical which he had written. Bill had rehearsed the choir for weeks and conducted the performance and what an experience that was for a church choir. We even got a write up in The Sun under the headline, “Rock star Rick plays the organ to save Kirk” and the article goes on to say that he was performing in a tiny Kirk to stop it from falling down…… well it was The Sun !

But Bill was so much more to us than our organist and choir master and that was largely because he didn’t appear to have the word “no” in his vocabulary.

He would be invited to speak every year at the Guild, The Senior Citizens and the Men’s Fellowship and, if someone called off at short notice, he would willingly fill in, showing his holiday slides or providing a musical evening.

He was the convener of the Pastoral Group at his home congregation of the West Kirk, in West Calder, but his pastoral care for his adopted family at Mure was equally caring. If he knew of anyone in the congregation who was ill or in need of a visit, he would be there for them.

Many members from Mure Memorial travelled through to West Calder for his funeral service in a packed church and on the evening of Tuesday 17th May we gathered for our own Service of Thanksgiving to share our memories and give thanks to God for the life of Bill Russell. Friendships meant a great deal to Bill and that was reflected in the number of people who came along that evening. We took time to remember a dear friend, a wonderful warm and caring person whom we were all privileged to know.

He is sadly missed.

Janet Park