Obituary
Andrew T. Russell, MD
March 13, 1944 – November 2, 2022

The Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Jane Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior are very saddened to announce the passing of Dr. Andrew Russell, Professor Emeritus, at the age of 78. He passed away with his loved ones by his side. He will be deeply missed by his colleagues, friends and family.

Drew was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where he and his older brother, David, gained an early appreciation of the value of education. His parents were both teachers at the University of California, Berkeley. His father, David, was a Professor of Education and his mother, Elizabeth, was a lecturer in the Speech Department. As a young boy, he traveled the world with his family, making lasting memories that he would recount at dinner tables for the rest of his life.

Drew received his Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College in 1966 before earning his Medical Doctorate from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1970. While a medical student, he met and fell in love with Kathleen Miller, a nursing student, whom he married in 1969. In 1971, Drew moved with Kathy to Los Angeles where they made a home for the rest of their lives. Drew completed both his psychiatry residency (1973) and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship (1977) at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital. UCLA remained Drew’s professional and academic home for the next 40 years.

He devoted much of his clinical and research efforts to serving children with severe developmental disabilities. For years, he was one of only a handful of psychiatrists in the United States with this expertise. He began his career as the ward psychiatrist on 6-West, a specialized unit for developmentally disabled adolescents. He then served as Chief of Inpatient Services in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division for 14 years before becoming Chief of Clinical Services in 1994. He co-directed the Tarjan Center for Developmental Disabilities and served on the hospital’s Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects for over a decade. Ever mindful of the emotional demands of his profession, he also coordinated the Psychiatric Clinical Faculty Association’s psychotherapy program for trainees.

His scholarly work ranged in subject from suicide in psychiatry trainees to developmental disability to the phenomenology of childhood-onset schizophrenia. On a national level, he was a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and served as co-chair of that organization’s Lifelong Learning Committee for 13 years. He was the recipient of multiple awards throughout his career, including AACAP’s George Tarjan, MD Award for Contributions in Developmental Disabilities. But he will perhaps be best remembered as a universally admired teacher and mentor to generations of child and adolescent psychiatry trainees.

Child and adolescent psychiatry fit Drew well. Both professionally and personally, he was a kind, generous, patient, and thoughtful helper. 

Outside of medicine, Drew was a man of many interests and hobbies. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the LA Phil, collected stamps, enjoyed woodworking and photography, and over his lifetime amassed a large collection of books on subjects ranging from naval histories to modern architecture to classic science fiction. And despite being born in the Bay Area, he was a devoted fan of Dodgers baseball.

Drew was proud of the three children he and Kathy raised together. After Kathy died in 2014, Drew transitioned into retirement while continuing to stay closely connected to the Department, and rekindled his love of traveling with trips to Cuba, Scotland, and Russia. When he was not visiting grateful grandchildren around the country, he enjoyed fellowship with his friends and fellow congregants of Brentwood Presbyterian Church.

Drew is survived by his three children, Julie, Doug, and Michael, their respective spouses, his six grandchildren, and his brother, David. Doug followed in his father’s footsteps; he practices child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Washington.

A memorial service will be held at Brentwood Presbyterian Church on Saturday, December 17th at 11:00 AM. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Drew’s name to one of the following:

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
https://www.aacap.org/Shared_Content/Fundraising/DonateNow.aspx

Brentwood Presbyterian Church Caregiving Fund
https://secure.myvanco.com/L-YXDA/campaign/C-10VNW

LA Phil
https://www.laphil.com/support/give-now

Obituary written by:
Douglas Russell, MD
Michael Russell
Julie Russell

(Re-printed from the Semel Institute’s announcement)