"It was 1944," the 82-year-old Alice recounts. "We were both in the Army, stationed in Fort Meade, Md. I was with my girlfriend when I first saw him. He had blond hair and a very nice tan, an extremely attractive man. I remember asking my friend, 'Who is that?' I couldn't take my eyes off of him."

After going on a date set up by their friends, Russell and Alice fell in love. They were married on May 6, 1945. He was 27 and she was 25.

"I was blessed," Alice says. "He's such a wonderful person."

Soon job opportunities and great weather brought them westward, first to Oregon and then to California. They settled in Cupertino with their two children in 1961.

Now, 58 years since they first met, Alice's feelings toward Russell have only grown stronger. And he reciprocated those feelings over the years, until he suddenly died from an abdominal aneurysm on Jan. 10. He was 85 years old.

"It's a great loss—not only to me, but to everyone that knew him," says Dave Veiera, a close friend who had known Russell for 27 years. "He was such a warm and giving person."

A well-known athlete and a model citizen, Russell touched many lives throughout the years.

Born on Dec. 22, 1917, Russell grew up in Iowa. In 1936, when he was 19 years old, he entered the world of professional baseball when the Cleveland Indians signed him as a pitcher. However, he was only able to pitch for the Indians for five years before the U.S. Army drafted him in 1941.

During World War II, he served as a combat infantryman in Guadacanal in the South Pacific.

"He wasn't obsessed with the experience at Guadacanal, but he never forgot about it," Alice says.

Although Russell rarely spoke about his experience in the Solomon Islands, he did agree to share the story with Stephen Ambrose, historian and author of Band of Brothers, Citizen Soldiers and many other books documenting the events of World War II.

Unfortunately, before the interview was scheduled to take place, Ambrose unexpectedly died of lung cancer in 2001.

Although the war had taken Russell away from baseball, it never diminished his love for the sport.

After moving to Cupertino, he volunteered as a coach for the Tri-Cities Little League and the Monta Vista High School baseball team.

"He was an outstanding coach," Veiera says. "He worked hard with individual players and helped them not only with baseball but life in general. The guys all loved and respected him."

Ryan Katz, a former Monta Vista High baseball team pitcher, says he still uses the skills he learned from Russell while pitching at Washington State University.

"I learned a lot from him," he says. "He always had something to teach us. He was just an awesome guy and a great coach."

Russell loved coaching so much that even after two knee surgeries in 1987 that resulted in his using a wheelchair, he didn't stop working with the young players.

"Even though he couldn't pitch anymore, he still showed us the techniques. Because of him, we all wanted to be pitchers," says Katz's former teammate Artist Battle, who now pitches at West Valley College.

Besides baseball, Russell loved children.

Every December for more than 40 years, Russell dressed up as Santa Claus and visited children throughout the area.

"He loved playing Santa Claus," Alice says. "And he was a good Santa Claus. The children all loved him."

"His wonderful charm and compassion touched many lives," Alice says. "He was like a celebrity. He knew everybody in Cupertino. He had a gift for friendship. He always made people feel that he cared about them."

"There wasn't anyone that he talked to that didn't like him. Russ was a great person. He'll be missed," Veiera adds.