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Mr. Francis Jack Russell
is serving his second term as Commissioner President of the Board of
County Commissioners.
He was born in
Piney Point,
Maryland
and graduated with a degree in government from the
University
of
Maryland
in 1965.
Mr. Russell went into business for himself on
St. George’s
Island
building the seafood harvesting and packing operation, Sea-Fruit. In 1979,
he built the skipjack, the
Dee
of St. Mary's.
He began converting his businesses from
seafood to tourism and education in the 1980s.
In 1999, Mr. Russell joined the teaching staff of the Harry Lundeberg
School of Seamanship in the
Paul
Hall
Center
of the Seafarer's International Union and continues to teach vessel
operations.
In 2000, he founded the
Chesapeake Bay
Field Lab, Inc. a 501(c) 3 nonprofit, to ensure the skipjack, the oyster
house and their respective educational programs would continue beyond his
lifetime. He still takes students out aboard his skipjack to teach
them about the natural and cultural history of the
Chesapeake Bay.
Mr. Russell was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve on the
Critical Area Commission for the
Chesapeake
and
Atlantic
Coastal
Bays
and is also a member of the Patuxent River Commission, the Maryland
Association of Counties (MACo) Board of Directors, and the
College
of
Southern Maryland’s
St. Mary’s County Advisory Council.
He has previously served
on the following Boards and Commissions: Tidal Fisheries Advisory
Board for State of Maryland, from 1980 to 1984; Potomac River Fisheries
Commission; past chairman, the Maryland and Virginia bi-state regulatory
commission, from 1980-1992; St. George’s Island Improvement Association,
president, from 1987-1997; St. Mary's Citizen Advisory Committee, member
Comprehensive Land Use Plan, from 1988-1990; Chesapeake Bay Field Lab,
director, from 2000-2001.
He works with alternative fuel as a hobby.
He and his wife, Viki Volk, live on
St.
George’s Island.
They have two daughters Caryn and Miranda.
His current term as Commissioner expires November
2014.
January 2011
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