SCARBOROUGH – Walter Russell “Russ” Edwards Jr. passed away peacefully on June 24, 2023 at the Gosnell Hospice House in Scarborough, Maine at the age of 89, surrounded by his family. Russ, born to W. Russell and Doris Edwards on Nov. 14, 1933, in Falmouth, Maine, was the eldest of four children; his siblings include Jay (deceased), Lorraine “Rainie”, and Jeffrey “Jeff”.

He lived his early years in Falmouth and was a graduate of Falmouth High School and later the University of Maine. After serving in the Air Force, he married Shirley Sewell, (predeceased in 2016) in Falmouth, Maine in 1959. Together they resided in Falmouth, Portland, and eventually Peaks Island, Maine.

At the age of 13 he bought his first sailboat, the first of many boats. He worked for Maine Maritime as crew, and often reminisced of the times he spent with people he met throughout the Caribbean. He loved sailing around the many islands of Casco Bay with his wife Shirley and their family and friends.

Politics was a really important part of Russ’s life. A lifelong Democrat, he was involved in politics from an early age. He was elected to the State Legislature and ran Senator Hathaway’s office in Portland. He worked on many campaigns, from local island issues to the presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, George McGovern and Jimmy Carter.

Russ was a great dancer. He and his friends would meet at high school before classes started to dance the jitterbug.

He had a great sense of humor and was an incredible storyteller, entrancing everyone within minutes. Until the very end his sense of humor never left him. He was brilliant in his ability to react to any situation with a joke off the top of his head.

An entrepreneur, he owned the island hardware store, a printing company, and a trailer park. He was a captain for Casco Bay Lines, renovated houses and boats, and worked at the Department of Commerce and Industry.

Russ leaves behind his four children, Kimberley and her husband Buyung Rusli; Russ and his wife Anne; Rainie and her husband Bob Pearson; and Terry and his wife Anita and his grandchildren Trevor, Julia, Olivia, Lani, Isabella and Aminah.

Services will be held on Friday, June 30, 2023, at 2 p.m. at Hobbs Funeral Home in South Portland, Maine.

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