Russell Spears

Russell Spears (March 8, 1917 – March 9, 2009) was an American stonemason and Narragansett tribal elder. Spears served on the tribal council. Spears continued the stonemasonry which has been practiced by the Narragansett since the 17th century.[1] He was well known for his stonemasonry throughout New England, which included handcrafted fireplaces, stone walls and patios.[1]

Personal life

Spears was born in Providence, Rhode Island.[1] His hobbies included playing the guitar, hunting deer, playing the piano and singing ballads.[1] He often wore the Native American jewelry he made and later in his life wore cowboy hats.[1]

He had one brother, named Alvin Spears, and one sister.

Career

Spears initially worked at the Kenyon Piece Dye Works, but disliked working inside and told the owner he would look elsewhere for work.[1] Most of his uncles and other relatives worked as stonemasons. He quickly learned the craft from his relatives.

Spears constructed stone structures throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts' Cape Cod throughout his long career, which spanned decades.[1] Spears often added artistic elements to his creations, including etched images and other artistic details.[1] His work was featured on the documentary Stories in Stone, which aired on PBS.[1] He also taught his sons to carve and shape rocks and stones, thus continuing the family and Narragansett traditions.[1]

Later life

Spears' house burned down in 2008, forcing him to move into his son's home.[1] A fundraising drive was underway when Spears fell ill.[1]

Russell Spears died on March 9, 2009, at South County Hospital in Wakefield, Rhode Island, at the age of 92.[1] His wife, Narragansett Indian Tribal member and youngest sister to 2-time Boston Marathon winner (1936, 1939) and 1936 U.S. Olympian Ellison "Tarzan" Brown, Grace Babcock (Brown) Spears (1917 - June 22,1998), had predeceased him.[1]

gollark: It does? Interesting.
gollark: > (If google co-operatates please God let them co-operate).You know you *can* use duckduckgo or something, if you distrust large entities or whatever.
gollark: I mean, he seems terrible. But the other candidates also seem terrible?
gollark: You don't even need that, anyone with an internet connection can just look up the algorithms and some implementations.
gollark: I mean, given that encryption is literally applied maths, you can't possibly stop (O NOES) bad people having access to it, only make it so *normal people* don't have convenient access to good cryptographic stuff and can be spied on easily.

References
  1. Davis, Paul (2009-03-13). "Businessman Vivian Murray dies at 76". Providence Journal. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.