Rocky Mount, N.C.—North Carolina Wesleyan College is saddened by the death of one of its original founders, Mrs. Alta Stone Russell, who passed away November 6, 2009, at age 106.

She was born in 1903, graduated from Trinity College, now Duke University, in 1923, and was believed to be the oldest Duke graduate at the time of her death. After graduating from Duke, she taught in the Durham, N.C., public schools until she married The Reverend Dr. Leon Russell. The couple spent the next 40 years of their lives together in Methodist ministry in Eastern North Carolina.

Dr. and Mrs. Russell were among the original founders of North Carolina Wesleyan College, which was chartered in 1956. The college’s Leon Russell Chapel, which was dedicated in 1984, is named in memory of Dr. Russell for his dedication to the Methodist ministry and his support of N.C. Wesleyan.

The Russells retired to Lake Junaluska, N.C., where they made their home for many years. After Dr. Russell’s death in 1979, Mrs. Russell moved to Friends Homes in Greensboro, where she was living at the time of her death.

She is survived by her daughter, Barbara Russell Hardin and husband, Paul, of Chapel Hill; her son, John Carl Russell and wife, Pat, of Old Saybrook, CT; her daughter, Martha Russell Gillikin and husband, Robert, of Dallas, TX; and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews, other relatives, and a great many friends.

Services will be held Sunday, November 15, at 2:00 p.m. at Memorial Chapel, Lake Junaluska, with interment at Garrett-Hillcrest Memorial Park in Waynesville.

The family’s suggestions for memorial contributions include The Leon Russell Chapel at North Carolina Wesleyan College, 3400 N. Wesleyan Blvd., Rocky Mount, NC 27804.